Washington, DC – The United States said it did not want to see further escalation between Israel and Hezbollah after the Lebanese armed group blamed Israel for a series of deadly, coordinated blasts of hand-held pagers.
But the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which remains Israel’s main military and diplomatic backer, also sought on Tuesday to downplay its ability to ease tensions between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was not involved in the apparent attack and had not been informed in advance that it would take place.
“I would say that our general policy remains the same: We want a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah,” Miller said. “We are always concerned about any kind of event that could cause further escalation.”
But when asked whether the Biden administration’s leverage — the U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually as well as unwavering diplomatic support — could be used to prevent a broader war, Miller said it was “not just a question for the United States.”
“Of course, this is a question of the first order for Israel. It is a question for Hezbollah, but it is a question for all the other countries in the region about what kind of region they want to live in,” he said.
“The United States will therefore continue to press for a diplomatic solution.”
Miller’s remarks come as human rights advocates have urged the Biden administration to pressure Israel to end its war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians since early October and decimated the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Analysts have repeatedly accused Washington of acting as both an “arsonist and a firefighter” by continually refusing to leverage US military aid for its “steadfast” ally despite the risks that a prolonged war in Gaza could lead to a broader regional escalation.
Hezbollah, which has been exchanging cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, blamed Israel for Tuesday’s pager blasts and vowed it would receive its “just punishment.”
The Israeli military has not yet commented on the explosions.
Lebanon’s health minister said at least nine people were killed, including an eight-year-old girl, when pagers exploded across Lebanon. About 2,750 people were also injured, 200 of them in critical condition.
Asked about the apparent indiscriminate nature of the explosions, the U.S. State Department’s Miller declined to comment directly on what happened.
He said, however, that the US position is generally that “no country, no organization should target civilians.”
“Mud on their face”
The explosions came as the Biden administration continues to say it is seeking to broker a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian faction that rules the territory.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East for a final meeting with mediators.
“President Biden doesn’t have much time, with the US election in less than 60 days,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Kimberly Halkett reported from Washington, DC.
“So if (the explosions in Lebanon) are something that Israel is in fact responsible for, that is certainly discouraging to the United States.”
The deadly explosions also come less than a day after White House adviser Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for a de-escalation along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
After the meeting, Netanyahu’s office issued a provocative statement saying that Israelis would not be able to return to the evacuated areas along the Lebanese border “without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.”
Ramy Khoury, a prominent scholar at the American University of Beirut, called the Israeli response to the US appeal “normal.”
“The Israelis have a habit of not only ignoring what the Americans tell them, but throwing mud in their faces,” Khoury told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“The Americans have very limited capabilities in terms of diplomatic action. They have focused more on military support for Israel and on sanctions against Israel’s enemies.”
Khoury added that “the United States’ diplomatic efforts are not taken very seriously by most people in the region” because of the country’s unconditional support for Israel.
“The United States should be a major diplomatic player,” he said. “But they are clearly on Israel’s side and everything they do has to be consistent with Israel’s priorities.”
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