Washington. US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held their first call in seven weeks on Wednesday, as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and weighs how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.
Netanyahu’s office also confirmed that the prime minister recently spoke with former US President Donald Trump.
Trump, currently the Republican presidential candidate, called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah,” according to the Israeli president’s office.
A Trump ally, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, also participated in the call.
Israel has been evaluating how to respond to the Oct. 1 Iranian missile attack, which the United States helped repel. Biden said last week that he would not support an Israeli attack on sites linked to Iran’s nuclear program.
The other alternatives could be a purely symbolic attack — such as the one Israel carried out after the Iranian attack with drones and missiles in April — or an attack against oil facilities or other infrastructure.
Since Biden and Netanyahu last spoke, Israel has carried out daring sabotage and assassination operations against Hezbollah, while that group has continued to fire missiles, rockets and drones at Israel.
Israel is now carrying out what it calls limited ground operations in Lebanon to root out Hezbollah. Israeli forces have launched bombings that killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and decimated its leadership.
Last month, thousands of Hezbollah beepers and walkie-talkies exploded, killing dozens of people and wounding thousands, including many civilians. Israel is believed to have been behind that attack.
The United States has increased its military presence in the Middle East, to defend both Israel and its own interests in the region. Washington has insisted to Israeli officials that they must inform it of their actions in order to protect US forces stationed there.
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