White House Middle East adviser Brett McGurk said the Biden administration is not mourning Israel’s killing of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqeel, but hinted the U.S. might not agree to the move given the risk of regional escalation.
“Ibrahim Akil, who was killed today, was responsible for the Beirut embassy bombing 40 years ago. So no one is shedding a tear for him,” McGurk said Friday at the Israel-American Council conference in Washington.
“However, we have differences with the Israelis regarding tactics and assessment of the risk of escalation. This is a very worrying situation. I am confident that through diplomacy, deterrence and other means we will find a way out,” he added.
“We do not believe that a war in Lebanon is the way to achieve the goal of returning people to their homes. We also fully support Israel in defending its people and its territory from Hezbollah,” McGurk continued. “We want a diplomatic settlement in the north. That is the goal and that is what we are working towards.”
The White House and State Department have largely refrained from commenting on the explosions by Hezbollah devices on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands, including civilians. Analysts believe it was a high-tech Israeli intelligence operation.
Kursor previously wrote that when asked if the US still had hopes for a deal on Gaza, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that there was hope and that his team was still working on it.
“If I ever said this is unrealistic, we might as well walk away,” Biden told reporters. “A lot of things don’t seem realistic until we do them. We’ve got to keep working at it.”
