The United States is ready to protect Israel against any attack that the country may receive in retaliation for the wave of simultaneous explosions, in the last two days, of hundreds of communication devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies that belonged to Hezbollah members, for which Lebanon and the terrorist group blame the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The capability we have in the region is greater than what we had on April 13, when Iran launched an attack on Israel, so we are confident in the capability we have there now to protect our forces and to defend Israel if necessary,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a press conference on Thursday (19).
Singh was responding to a possible escalation in tensions following attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed 37 people and wounded 3,200 others after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members were blown up, local media reported.
The Iran-backed Shiite group held Israel “fully responsible” for the attack and vowed “targeted retaliation” for what happened. Iran also said it reserved the right to respond legally to the attack on its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, who was lightly wounded by a pager explosion on Tuesday.
“The president (Joe Biden) has made it very clear that we are there to support Israel and its self-defense if necessary,” Singh said, adding that the US was “not involved in any way” in the attacks.
The spokeswoman said the US was concerned about the escalation of tension in the region and that, therefore, in recent weeks, there had been “a lot of effort by different authorities in this administration to move forward on a ceasefire agreement”.
“We ultimately believe that the best way to reduce tensions in the region is through diplomatic means, and that is what Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is working on,” he said.
“This government is working tirelessly to ensure that there is no wider regional war,” Singh concluded.
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