US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel not to escalate its conflict with Tehran and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah as it continues to respond militarily to attacks from both entities.
“It's also been an imperative for us to try to make sure that this conflict doesn't spread. We are resolute in our defense of Israel when it comes to attacks it's receiving from Iran, from Iran's proxies,” Blinken told reporters on Wednesday morning before departing Tel Aviv for Saudi Arabia.
“We stand with Israel and will always stand with Israel and its defense,” he stressed. “It's also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation and do not risk spreading the conflict with Hezbollah and Lebanon,” he said.
He spoke as Israel continues to weigh its retaliatory response both to Iran’s direct ballistic missile attack against it at the start of October and the Iranian and Hezbollah attempted assassination against Netanyahu last week.
The IDF has continued to strike at Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Israel on Wednesday began to bomb the UNESCO-listed port city of Tyre on Wednesday roughly three hours after issuing an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings. Tens of thousands of people had already fled Tyre in recent weeks.
The port is typically a bustling hub for the south - with fishermen, tourists, and even UN peacekeepers on a break from deployments near the border spending time there by the sea. But Israel's evacuation orders this week for the city have for the first time encompassed swathes of it, including right up to its ancient castle.
In Lebanon, Israel's military said it had killed three Hezbollah commanders and some 70 fighters in the south in the past 48 hours, a day after confirming it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the militant group's heir apparent leader.
Ceasefire deal
The United States has pushed in particular this week to advance a ceasefire to end the year-long IDF-Hezbollah war in Lebanon that would be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that set the ceasefire terms which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon war. That text calls for Hezbollah not to operate between the Israeli-Lebanese border and the Litani River.
US special envoy Amos Hochstein has been in Lebanon this working working on a ceasefire deal that would be based on that same resolution.
“We're working intensely on the effective implementation of 1701… that many years ago should have avoided what we're seeing now, but didn't, because it's never been implemented,” Blinken said.
“It's absolutely critical that the parties, and notably, Hezbollah, be moved back from the border, that the Lebanese Armed Forces are able to assume their responsibilities,” Blinken said.
He stressed that it was important that evacuated Israeli and Lebanese civilians on both sides of the border be allowed to return home.
Separately, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Beirut for talks on Wednesday and said the task was to find a viable diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon after Israel succeeded in weakening Hezbollah.
"The task now is to work with our partners in the U.S., Europe, and the Arab world to find a viable diplomatic solution that safeguards the legitimate security interests of both Israel and Lebanon," Baerbock said in a statement.