U.S. President Joe Biden. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

President Joe Biden said he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, in comments that sent oil prices spiking Thursday just a month before the U.S. presidential election.

Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran’s missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least.

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When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, Mr. Biden said “we’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway.”

Oil prices jumped five per cent over concerns about the Middle East after Biden spoke.

A rise in oil prices could be hugely damaging for Mr. Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.

Mr. Biden said he did not expect any immediate action from Israel — even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid little heed to calls for restraint as he targets the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel. And there is nothing going to happen today,” Mr. Biden told reporters when asked if he would allow Israel to retaliate against Iran.

Mr. Biden said on Wednesday that he would not back Israel attacking Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran launched around 200 rockets in a direct missile attack on Israel on Tuesday, prompting Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay.

Iran said it was in retaliation for the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Iran’s Palestinian ally Hamas, and Israel’s crushing retaliatory offensive in Gaza.

Washington:

The White House on Wednesday voiced concern about the increased risk of an escalation into a broader Middle East war after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran drew threats of retaliation against Israel.

Speaking to reporters at a daily briefing, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said, however, that Washington did not see an all-out conflict in the region as imminent or inevitable and that it was working to prevent that from happening.

He said the U.S. still believed there was a “viable” process to reach a ceasefire deal to end more than nine months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, despite concerns that effort had been dealt a serious blow.

The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, who had participated in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave. The Guards said it took place hours after he attended a swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s new president.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government made no mention of Haniyeh’s killing in a televised statement on Wednesday evening but said Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies of late, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.

The assassination occurred less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander in the Lebanese capital Beirut in retaliation for a deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

CONCERNS OF ESCALATION

“We don’t want to see an escalation,” Kirby told reporters. “Those risks go up and down every day. They are certainly up right now. They don’t make the task of de-escalation, deterrence and dissuasion – which is the goal – any less complicated.”

Kirby referred, however, to comments by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Supreme Leader said Israel had provided the grounds for “harsh punishment for itself” and it was Tehran’s duty to avenge Haniyeh’s death.

Iranian forces had already made strikes directly on Israel earlier in the Gaza war, which was triggered by a Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Kirby declined to say whether the U.S. was urging restraint by Israel, except to say: “We have been working hard to keep this war from escalating.”

While the latest events appear to set back any prospects for an imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Kirby said: “We haven’t seen any indications … that the process has been completely torpedoed.”

“We still believe the deal on the table is worth pursuing,” he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at an event in Singapore, sidestepped a question on Haniyeh’s killing, saying a ceasefire deal in Gaza was key to avoiding wider regional conflict. He told Channel News Asia that the U.S. had neither been aware of nor involved in the killing.

Blinken spoke by phone to Jordanian and Qatari leaders, and the State Department said they discussed regional tensions and efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire.

The United States will take every possible measure to protect its personnel and interests in the Middle East after recent attacks there, U.S. State Department Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.

The U.S. also urged its citizens to not travel to Lebanon, citing rising tensions between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)