President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with national security officials in the White House Situation Room on Monday as Iran reiterates its intention to punish Israel for the apparent assassination of senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The meeting will focus on developments in the Middle East, the White House said. Concerns about a larger regional conflict have grown even greater with Haniya’s assassination.
Although Israel has not acknowledged the attack on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to take revenge on Israel after Haniyeh’s death.
Attacks by Iran and the militant Hezbollah group it supports could occur as early as Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the heads of state and government of the G7 countries in a telephone conference on Sunday, Axios reported, citing three sources informed of the telephone call.
The call was arranged in a last-minute attempt to pressure Iran and Hezbollah to limit their attacks as much as possible to prevent a full-scale war, Axios added.
G7 members have been in contact with Iran to minimize retaliation and prevent a regional war, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters on Monday that the Islamic Republic did not want to escalate tensions but had the right under international law to punish Israel, Bloomberg reported.
“Strengthening stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating a deterrent against Israel and its adventurism,” the spokesman said, according to Bloomberg.
Haniyeh’s death followed an already tense week in the region after Israel killed Fuad Shukr, the top military leader of the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Several foreign policy experts said last week that the back-to-back deaths of the militant leaders were sure to escalate already rising tensions. Just over three months earlier, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones directly at Israel in an unprecedented attack.
Meanwhile, some experts told The Hill that Tehran most likely does not have the resources to repeat April’s massive attack on Israel and may instead respond through its proxies, including Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that his country is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies. Tensions have been rising since early October, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others.
Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has left nearly 40,000 people dead, while Netanyahu promises to eliminate the Hamas threat. Israel has also faced rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon over the past ten months.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure that the situation does not escalate,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC News on Sunday.
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