US working to avert ‘greater war’ between Israel and Hezbollah: Biden envoy
Al Jazeera
US says cross-border hostilities should cease urgently as Gaza war threatens to escalate into major regional conflict.
The United States is working to prevent “a greater war” between Israel and Hezbollah, a White House envoy has said.
Speaking on Tuesday during a trip to Lebanon, from where the Iran-linked armed group is engaged in low-level hostilities with Israel, Amos Hochstein said that the US is urgently seeking to calm a conflict that has been threatening to escalate since it started in October with the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah and Israel have regularly traded fire across the Israel-Lebanon border over the last eight months. However, last week, the Lebanon-based group fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israeli military sites after one of its commanders was killed.
Speaking after meeting with Lebanon’s House Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah, President Biden’s envoy Hochstein called for “urgent” de-escalation.
“We have seen an escalation over the last few weeks. And what President Biden wants to do is avoid a further escalation to a greater war,” Hochstein told reporters.