Biden secretly ‘pledges military intervention’ to Israel
The US privately indicated it would fight alongside Israel if war spreads across the Middle East, as an unprecedented ‘worldwide’ travel warning was issued for American citizens.
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The United States secretly pledged its military would fight alongside Israel if the war in Gaza spreads across the Middle East, according to sources.
As President Joe Biden sought to de-escalate the region from the brink of war, White House officials privately indicated that the US would join the Israel Defence Force if Hezbollah launches an offensive from Lebanon.
Biden denied the report by The Times of Israel, with his National Security Council spokesman John Kirby adding there was “no intention to put US boots on the ground in combat”.
When pressed on why they would not directly address whether indications had been made about US military support of Israel if Hezbollah attacks from the north, Kirby added that the US would not remain inactive if dragged into the conflict.
“Obviously, we have national security interests. We’ll protect them if we need to,” he said, referencing the two carrier groups off the coast of Israel and Lebanon.
“It’s a sufficient, credible military force, and if we, if, as Commander-in-Chief he, decides that that force needs to be used to defend our interests, we’ll do that”.
Despite the attempts to deny the US’s private pledge to join the IDF against Hezbollah, The Times of Israel said it “stands by the reporting” of the White House’s closed-door assurances of military support.
It comes as the US State Department issued an unprecedented “worldwide caution” for Americans travelling anywhere across the globe, while the UK and Germany urged citizens to leave Lebanon while “commercial operations are still available”.
In its latest travel advisory, the US warned Americans to exercise increased caution “due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests.
BIDEN WARNS ISRAEL AMID WW3 FEARS
Joe Biden was slammed for sending $A160 million to Gaza while warning Israel against expressing “rage”, as the US attempted to bring the Middle East back from the brink of an all-out regional war.Speaking during an unprecedented visit to Israel, Mr Biden acknowledged US aid to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could likely be used by Hamas and Hezbollah to continue their campaign of terror against the Jewish state.
It comes as US diplomats began evacuating Beirut, where rioters attempted to storm and set fire to the embassy with molotov cocktails, and Iran ominously said “time’s up” after earlier warning it would launch a pre-emptive strike on Israel.
“If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people,” Mr Biden said, adding mechanisms would be put in place in an attempt to prevent aid going to Hamas.
Mr Biden also warned Israel against repeating the mistakes made by the US in Iraq, where the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein ultimately led to the emergence of ISIS.
“While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” he said.
“After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we made mistakes.”
The warning to Tel Aviv and aid package to Gaza is part of the US’s attempt to walk the tightrope of backing Israel’s self-defence while avoiding a wider conflict with Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.
Mr Biden’s critics claimed that giving $US100m aid to the Gaza Strip was indistinguishable from giving it to Hamas, which is the elected governing body of the Palestinian territory.
“The same amount of money Iran gives Hamas every single year,” said US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“There is now no difference between Joe Biden and the Ayatollah of Iran.”
The president’s visit made little impact on calls by Israel’s neighbours for the so-called “Axis of Resistance” to launch attacks on multiple fronts.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the blast at a Gaza hospital was the deadline for the wider conflict, despite US and Israeli evidence pointing to a Hamas misfire as the cause of the tragedy.
“After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than 1000 innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine,” Amir-Abdollahian tweeted.
“Time is OVER!”
Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute, said their entry into the conflict could trigger a world war.
“So far, Russia and China have remained relatively restrained in their public statements, but if Iran gets directly involved, Russia is likely to feel compelled to support it due to Iran providing important missile and UAV supplies and training support to the Russian military in its war against Ukraine,” he wrote in an essay, published in The Daily Mail.
“The potential risk of the Israeli-Hamas war escalating into a much more serious regional conflict that includes the US is clear if Iran or its proxies attack Israel in the coming weeks.”
In the move to prevent regional escalation while also backing Israel, Mr Biden also announced the US would “keep the Iron Dome fully supplied” while the US Department of Treasury would place a swath of new sanctions on Hamas and Iran-linked groups.
“Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of ISIS, unleashing pure, unadulterated evil on the world,” Mr Biden said, adding the world would not stand by and watch a repeat of the Holocaust.
President Biden touched down at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv just before 11am local time on Wednesday and was met at the steps of Air Force One by a delegation led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Biden skipped the formalities of a handshake and instead embraced both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
It is the first visit of an American president in Israel in a time of war and was a lightning visit for President Biden who had a range of meetings including with victims’ families, relatives of those who have been taken hostage by Hamas and first responders.
US QUIETLY MOVES TO LEGALISE WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The United States placed about 2000 troops on alert to deploy to Israel as new laws granting President Joe Biden sweeping powers were written to authorise a return to war in the Middle East.
The US’s rapid response force that specialises in medical support and explosives has been put on a 24-hour “prepare-to-deploy” order, according to a defence official quoted on condition of anonymity.
It comes as Iran threatened to launch a “pre-emptive strike” against Israel within hours ahead of an expected ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
As escalations flared, the US’s House Foreign Affairs Committee wrote draft legislation that would allow the US to use military force in the Middle East for the first time since the official end of Iraq war powers.
The new “Authorisation for Use of Military Force” represents a major escalation by the United States in a potential return to the region following the withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US invasion of Iraq was legalised by post-September 11 Authorisation for Use of Military Force legislation in 2002 that gave sweeping war powers across the Middle East, including top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Following the killing, the laws giving the US legal cover to operate in the region were repealed in 2021 in an attempt to limit former US president Donald Trump’s power for further military action against Iran.
The reintroduction of the wide ranging war powers represents the most significant sign yet that the US could be drawn into the conflict between Israel and Hamas “in the event it’s necessary”.
“I hope I never have to mark this bill up,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul.
“But we have a situation in the Middle East that’s growing day by day with intensity,” he added to CNN.
“And if Hezbollah gets involved, Iran has already threatened if Gaza is, you know, if Israel goes, you know, if IDF (Israel Defense Forces) goes into Gaza that they’re gonna come out.”
The draft legislation comes as the US ordered a second carrier strike group to the coasts of Israel, Gaza and Lebanon and President Joe Biden flies to Tel Aviv amid the rapid military build-up in the region.
About 12,000 US personnel are deployed or headed towards the eastern Mediterranean in the 10 warships of two Carrier Strike Groups, the USS Dwight D Eisenhower group and the USS Gerald R Ford group.
Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi suggested US forces would get “involved” if the war escalates, saying that Biden’s visit is “making clear to our enemies that there will be American involvement” if Iran and Hezbollah enter the conflict.
“Israel will not be alone … a US force is here and it is ready,” he said, referencing the deployment of US troops in the Mediterranean.
McCaul, however, would not comment on whether he was asked by the White House to prepare the legal authorisation for the use of lethal force in defence of Israel.
“I don’t want to confirm that. It’s just that there is concern that — we, I’m currently, we’re currently drafting one in the event it’s necessary,” he said.
“I’m currently preparing a draft of that in the event it is called upon and is necessary, but most importantly is supported by the American people,” he said.
The White House’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this week that they could not “rule out that Iran would choose to get directly engaged some way”.
“We have to prepare for every possible contingency. That’s exactly what the president has done,” he said.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser, Mohammad-Javad Larijani said any military intervention “would be a strategic mistake,” adding it would make the US
a “legitimate target for the resistance fighters in the entire region” and that it would not be “limited to Gaza”.
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