The US has held back-channel talks with Iran to warn the Islamic Republic against escalating the war between Israel and Hamas into a broader regional conflict, according to President Joe Biden’s top security adviser.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington has the means to communicate privately with Iran and “we have used those means in recent days to clarify privately what we have said publicly.”
He spoke after the US announced it would send a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean, as Israel’s preparations for a ground offensive against Gaza added to diplomats’ concerns that the war could spark a wider conflagration.
Western and Arab diplomats fear the war could inflame the region, particularly worrying that it could attract Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, and other militants also backed by Tehran.
“The threat yesterday was real. “The threat is real today,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face The Nation. “There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north and of course Iranian involvement – that is a risk.”
An Israeli armored vehicle near the Gaza border © Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty ImagesIsrael announced on Sunday that it would close an area up to four kilometers from Lebanon’s northern border and limit the use of GPS in “active combat zones.” There have been several artillery shellings along the border since the Hamas attack, but so far Hezbollah and Israeli forces appear to be trying to contain hostilities.
In the south, Israel also said it was evacuating residents from the town of Sderot, near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Washington said last week it would send a carrier strike group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford to the region. On Saturday evening, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was also sending a group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower “as part of our efforts to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts to expand that war following the Hamas attack on Israel.”
Israel said on Saturday its armed forces were preparing to implement a “wide range of operational offensive plans.”
The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers were deployed “across the country” and would “increase readiness for the next phases of the war, with a focus on significant ground operations.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the impoverished, constricted strip have fled to southern Gaza after Israel ordered them to leave the enclave’s north.
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In a sign of Washington’s changing tone, Sullivan said it was critical that the Jewish state “embrace the rule of law and the laws of war.” He added that the Biden administration is “very focused” on ensuring the safety of civilians in Gaza.
Israel has imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, electricity and fuel supplies and ordering about 1.1 million Palestinians to move from northern Gaza to the south of the strip. On Sunday, Israel Energy Minister Israel Katz said water supplies had been partially restored following an agreement between Netanyahu and Biden.
“The protection of civilians and people trying to reach safety and their ability to access food, water, medicine and shelter, those things should be respected,” Sullivan said.
The United States and other Western countries have strongly supported Israel and affirmed its right to defend itself after the Hamas attack. The attack was the deadliest in the history of the Jewish state, killing more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
According to Palestinian health authorities, Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,329 people, including many women and children.
Gaza City after Israeli airstrikes © Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty ImagesAccording to Israel, Hamas also took at least 120 hostages in the attack, including US and European nationals. Qatar, where Hamas’s political office is located, is working with the US to reach an agreement to release civilian hostages.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been touring the region, is expected to return to Israel on Monday.
Israel is expected to launch one of its biggest ground offensives in years in a multi-pronged attack. “Our goal is to eliminate the Hamas infrastructure all the way to the top,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman. He described Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, as a “dead man walking.”
The IDF said on Sunday it was discussing details with the country’s political leadership. One official echoed comments made by other officials in recent days, suggesting that Israel intended to end Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip.
Evacuation efforts for international civilians in Israel and Gaza continue. The US Embassy in Israel said it would send a ship to Haifa to evacuate US nationals. Western nations are trying to allow their citizens safe passage into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian crisis, but Egypt has made clear it is against opening its borders to accept fleeing Palestinians and wants humanitarian aid sent to the people of Gaza instead.
A spokesman for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president, said on Sunday that “there is no solution to the Palestinian cause other than the two-state solution” and that the policy of “forced displacement, resolving the Palestinian issue at the expense of “the Palestinian issue” was “other countries” was “rejected and disapproved of”.
Additional reporting by Samer al-Atrush in Dubai and Raya Jalabi in Beirut