Deputy assistant to the US president Amos Hochstein has signaled that Washington would get behind an Israeli incursion into Lebanon, reportedly telling Beirut’s PM that Tel Aviv intends to shift focus to Hezbollah after fighting in Gaza winds down.
As reported by the Middle East Eye, citing an unnamed senior Arab official, this message was conveyed during talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday. Hochstein bluntly warned that the US plans to support an Israeli attack should the two sides fail to deescalate tensions.
The US envoy added that Tel Aviv expects to significantly scale back its military operations in Gaza in around five weeks, saying the break could allow a new round of talks with Hezbollah even if no ceasefire deal is reached with Hamas.
However, Hochstein also stated that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would shift “full focus” to Israel’s northern border following the Gaza pause, with the goal of pushing the Hezbollah away from Israeli soil. Such an escalation would almost certainly undermine future peace talks.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded tit-for-tat strikes around the border region on a near-daily basis since the war with Hamas broke out last October, with IDF raids pushing deeper into Lebanese territory in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border due to the ongoing fighting.
While Hochstein traveled to Lebanon in a bid to quell the hostilities with Israel, Tel Aviv has all but confirmed that it intends to go ahead with an attack regardless. On Tuesday, the IDF announced that it had approved “operational plans” for a larger offensive in Lebanon, but shared few other details.
During a speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah issued a stark warning against an Israeli offensive, saying the move would trigger a war “without rules or ceilings.”
“We have more than 100,000 fighters, and even more, even in the worst-case scenario. We have prepared for the worst-case scenario and Israel knows it,” he said, adding that “no place … will be spared our rockets.”
Nasrallah also went on to stress that he does not seek “total war” with Israel, however, and questioned whether the IDF even has the capability to invade Lebanon after more than eight months of fighting in Gaza.
Will Porter is assistant news editor at the Libertarian Institute and a regular contributor at Antiwar.com. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.