File picture of U.S. President Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
| Photo Credit: Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would not participate in any Israeli counter-offensive against Iran, a White House official said on Sunday.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night in response to a suspected Israel attack on Iran’s Syria consulate on April 1.
In a statement issued late on Saturday following the attacks, Mr. Biden said he told Mr. Netanyahu that Israel had “demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks.”
ALSO READ |By attacking Israel, Iran turns shadow war into direct conflict – ANALYSIS
Mr. Biden did not say in the statement if he and Mr. Netanyahu discussed a possible Israeli response or potential U.S. involvement.
John Kirby, the White House’s top national security spokesperson, told ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday that the United States will continue to help Israel defend itself, but does not want war with Iran.
Asked if the United States would support retaliation from Israel in Iran, Mr. Kirby said that “our commitment is ironclad” to defending Israel and to “helping Israel defend itself.”
“And as the president has said many times, we don’t seek a wider war in the region. We don’t seek a war with Iran. And I think I will leave it at that,” Mr. Kirby added.
“We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict,” Mr. Kirby said.
Middle East on the brink: U.N. chief
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday warned members not to further escalate tensions with reprisals against Iran, while the U.S. warned the Security Council it would work to hold Tehran accountable at the U.N.
Mr. Guterres, speaking to a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, told member states that the U.N. charter bars the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state as he also condemned Iran’s attack on Israel.
“The Middle East is on the brink. The people of the region are confronting a real danger of a devastating full-scale conflict. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate,” Mr. Guterres told the meeting, which was called after Iran’s attack.