Biden warns Israel against Iran oil strikes as war fears mount
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US President Joe Biden believes Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran's Oct 1 ballistic missile attack.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden on Oct 4 advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.
But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest that Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Mr Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” US support for Israel when deciding on next steps.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Mr Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
He added that the Israelis had not concluded “what they’re going to do” in retaliation to a huge ballistic missile attack by Iran
The price of oil jumped after Mr Biden’s remarks on Oct 3.
Any long-term rise could be highly damaging for Vice-President Kamala Harris, as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a Nov 5 election, where the cost of living is a major issue.
Meanwhile, Trump, campaigning in North Carolina, offered a far more provocative view of what he thinks a response to Iran should be, referencing a question posed to Mr Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.
“They asked him, ‘what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?’ and he goes, ‘as long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff’.
“That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.
Mr Biden “got that one wrong”, Trump said.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
Trump has said little about the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East. But he issued a scathing statement this week, holding Mr Biden and Ms Harris responsible for the crisis.
Mr Biden’s appearance at the famed briefing room podium was not announced in advance, taking reporters by surprise. In the nearly four years of his presidency, he has never spoken there before.
It also comes at a tense time as he prepares to leave office, with the situation boiling over in the Middle East and political criticism at home over his handling of a recent hurricane that struck the US south-east.
Mr Biden said he was doing his best to avoid a full-scale conflagration in the Middle East, where Israel is bombing Lebanon in a bid, it says, to wipe out the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
“The main thing we can do is try to rally the rest of the world and our allies into participating... to tamp this down,” he told reporters.
“But when you have (Iranian) proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis (of Yemen), it’s a hard thing to determine.”
Mr Biden, however, had tough words for Mr Netanyahu, with whom he has had rocky relations as he seeks to manage Israel’s response following the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored his calls for restraint on Lebanon and Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Mr Biden deflected a question on whether he believed Mr Netanyahu was hanging back on signing a Middle East peace deal in a bid to influence the US presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi (Mr Netanyahu) should remember that,” Mr Biden said.
“And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Mr Biden said he had still not spoken to Mr Netanyahu since the Iranian attack, which involved about 200 missiles, but added that their teams were in “constant contact”.
“They’re not going to make a decision immediately, and so we’re going to wait to see when they want to talk,” he added.
Iran launched around 200 rockets in a direct missile attack on Israel on Oct 1 in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
This prompted Mr Netanyahu to warn that Tehran would pay a hefty price.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the Oct 7, 2023, attacks, saying it is doing so in support of Gaza. AFP
