WASHINGTON:US President Joe Biden is likely to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will include discussion on Iran, Reuters reported.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Middle East has been on edge awaiting response of Israel to a missile strike from Iran last week that Iran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon.
Netanyahu has said that arch enemy Iran would pay for its missile strike, while Iran has said any retaliation would be met with “vast destruction,” raising fears of a wider conflict in the region which could draw in Washington.
Israel’s retaliation will be a key topic of the call, Reuters news agency reported. However, the White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
President Biden said last Friday that he would think regarding alternatives to attacking Iranian oil fields if I were in Israel’s shoes, saying he thought Israel had not concluded how to respond to Tehran.
Israel has faced calls to strike a truce deal in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon by the US and other allies, but has said it will continue its military offensives. Reuters reported that President Biden and Netanyahu are also likely to discuss the conflicts with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and with Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Biden and Netanyahu have had sharp differences over the conduct of the war in recent months, setting up a possibly tense encounter.
Around three million people in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s military operations, Palestinian and Lebanese officials said, and Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis with a lack of fresh water and food.
