President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with national security officials in the White House Situation Room on Monday, as Iran reiterates its intention to punish Israel for the apparent assassination of Hamas’ top political leader Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.
The meeting will focus on developments in the Middle East, the White House said. Concerns about a wider regional conflict were heightened by Haniyeh’s murder.
Although Israel did not recognize the attack on Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to take revenge on Israel after Haniyeh’s death.
Attacks by Iran and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah could come as early as Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Group of Seven leaders in a conference call Sunday. Axios reportedciting three sources briefed on the conference call.
The call was organized in a last-ditch effort to urge Iran and Hezbollah to limit their attacks as much as possible to avoid an all-out war, Axios added.
G7 members contacted Iran to minimize retaliation in order to avoid a regional war, Bloomberg reportedciting people familiar with the matter.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters on Monday that the Islamic Republic does not want to deepen tensions but has the right under international law to punish Israel, according to Bloomberg.
“Strengthening stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against Israel and its adventurism,” the spokesperson said, according to Bloomberg.
Haniyeh’s death came after an already tense week in the region after Israel killed Fuad Shukr, the top military leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
Several foreign policy experts suggested last week that the back-to-back deaths of militant leaders are sure to heighten already rising tensions, coming just over three months after Iran fired directly at Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones in an unprecedented attack.
Some experts, however, told The Hill that Tehran likely does not have the resources to repeat April’s massive attack on Israel and may instead respond through its proxies, including Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that his country is already in a “multifront war” with Iran and its proxies. Tensions have been rising since early October, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 others.
Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people, as Netanyahu pledges to eliminate the threat from Hamas. Israel has also faced rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon over the past 10 months.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure this situation does not escalate,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC News on Sunday.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
