U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (right) meets with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv on March 9, 2023. (U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Kubitza/DoD).
Austin: ‘We remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable.’
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Manila on Tuesday that the US would defend Israel in a full-scale war with Lebanon, as reported by The Washington Post.
However, Austin emphasized that such a war was not inevitable and that Washington was pushing for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis.
Austin said, “We remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable.”
“I think that you know, we’d like to see things resolved in a diplomatic fashion,” he added.
“Israel will do what it needs to defend itself. And it’s demonstrated that you know, time and again,” Austin explained.
“Certainly that’s not a scenario that we’d like to see occur,” Austin said.
“If Israel is attacked.. we will help to help Israel defend itself. We’ve been clear about that from the very beginning, but again, we don’t want to see that happen,” he stated.
On Tuesday, Israel launched a strike in Beirut targeting Fuad Shukr, a senior advisor to Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah.
Shukr is thought to have been behind the Hezbollah rocket attack Saturday that killed 12 children and injured many others in a soccer field in Majdal Shams and was wanted by the US for his role in the 1983 bombing of a US military base in Beirut that killed 241 US marine personnel.
Following Hezbollah’s killing of the 12 Druze children, US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said, “We’re continuing to work toward a diplomatic resolution that would allow Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return to their homes and live in peace and security. We certainly want to avoid any kind of escalation.”
He also added that the US-Israel alliance remained “ironclad” and that “Israel has every right to defend itself” and “certainly faces threats like no other country does in that region of the world.”
Proposed coalition would also need Shas support, despite its endorsement of Netanyahu.
The agency last estimated Iran held over 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity.
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