Washington, DC – The United States has said it does not want to see further escalation of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah blamed Israel for a series of deadly coordinated mobile phone bombings.
But the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, Israel’s biggest military and diplomatic backer, attempted on Tuesday to scale back America’s ability to ease tensions between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was not involved in the attack and had no advance notice it was coming.
“I would say that our overall policy remains consistent, which is that we want to see a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah,” Miller said. “We are always concerned about any type of incident that could lead to further escalation.”
But when asked whether the Biden administration’s clout — the U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid annually and staunch diplomatic support — could be used to prevent a broader war, Miller said, “It’s not just about the U.S.”
“Of course, that is the first … order question for Israel. It is a question for Hezbollah, but it is a question for all the other countries in the region and what type of region they want to live in,” he said.
“So the United States will continue to work toward a diplomatic solution.”
Miller’s comments come as human rights advocates urge the Biden administration to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, where more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and coastal Palestinian settlements destroyed since early October.
Analysts have repeatedly accused Washington of acting as “arsonist and firefighter” by continuing to refuse to provide military support to its “ironclad” ally, despite the risk that a prolonged Gaza war could lead to a wider escalation of regional tensions.
Hezbollah, which has been engaged in cross-border gunfire with Israel since the war began in the Gaza Strip, blamed Israel for the bombing on Tuesday and vowed to receive a “fair punishment.”
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the blast.
Lebanon’s health minister said at least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed when phasers exploded across the country. Some 2,750 people were injured, 200 of them in critical condition.
Asked about the indiscriminate nature of the explosions, Miller of the U.S. State Department declined to comment directly on what happened.
But he said the U.S. position in broad terms is that “no country or organization should target civilians.”
‘There’s mud on your face’
The explosion comes as the Biden administration continues to insist it is trying to broker a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the area.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East for the latest round of meetings with mediators.
“President Biden is running out of time,” Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkit reports from Washington, D.C. “The U.S. presidential election is less than 60 days away.”
“So if (the Lebanon bombing) is indeed something that Israel is responsible for, it’s certainly disappointing for the United States.”
The deadly explosion came less than a day after White House adviser Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged a de-escalation of tensions along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
After the meeting, Netanyahu’s office issued a defiant statement, insisting that Israelis would not be able to return to the evacuated areas along the Lebanese border “without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.”
Rami Khoury, a distinguished researcher at the American University of Beirut, called Israel’s response to the US appeal “business as usual.”
“Israelis not only ignore what Americans say, they throw mud in their faces,” Khoury told Al Jazeera.
“The United States has very limited capacity for diplomatic action. They have focused more on military support for Israel and sanctions against Israel’s enemies.”
Kuri added that because of America’s unconditional support for Israel, “most local people do not take American diplomatic efforts very seriously.”
“The United States should be a major diplomatic player,” he said. “But the United States is clearly on Israel’s side, and everything it does has to be aligned with Israel’s priorities.”
