WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden ordered that the US military presence in the Middle East be “adjusted” as necessary, amid tensions over Israeli attacks on southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, the US military announced this Friday. White House.
“He has directed the Pentagon to evaluate and adjust, as necessary, the posture of U.S. forces in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection, and support” Washington’s objectives, the White House said in a statement. .
Biden also ordered US embassies in the region “to take all appropriate protective measures,” he added.
The Democratic president, who traveled this Friday to his beach house in Delaware, He is in contact with his national security team, the White House added.
Biden had earlier confirmed that the United States was not aware of the Israeli operation “nor has it participated in it.”
“We are gathering information,” he added to reporters.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also said the United States had no prior knowledge, and that he spoke by phone with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, “when Israel’s operation was already underway.”
Another US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israelis told “the US government that they were going to take military action once the operation was already underway and they had planes in the air.”
Israeli television networks reported that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was the target of the attack. A source close to this pro-Iran movement said that he is “fine.”
“All measures”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this Friday that Washington will take “all measures” necessary if its interests are attacked in the Middle East, before urging a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The United States will take all measures in the event that its personnel or interests are attacked in the region,” the head of US diplomacy warned at a press conference.
For Blinken, “the most important thing is to try to stop the attacks in both directions with diplomacy and then use the truce to see if we can reach a broader diplomatic agreement,” he said.
The United States and France this week presented a proposal for a temporary 21-day ceasefire to end the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
“It may seem difficult to see the path of diplomacy at this moment, but it is still there, and in our opinion it is necessary. We will continue working intensely,” he stressed.
