In wake of Haniyeh killing, Austin says US will ‘help defend Israel’ if it’s attacked
‘Hard to speculate’ how hostage talks will be affected, Blinken says; Germany cautions all parties to ‘prevent regional conflagration,’ Russia warns of ‘dangerous consequences’
The Times of Israel
Jul 31, 2024
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a joint news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro after a foreign and defense ministerial meeting at Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, Philippines, July 30, 2024.
United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated his “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security on Wednesday and said Washington would come to its defense if needed, hours after Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran early Wednesday, in a targeted assassination attributed to Israel.
Haniyeh was assassinated in the early hours of the morning after having traveled from his home in Qatar to Tehran to attend the swearing-in ceremony for the country’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
Israel has not commented on his killing. The US has said it had no part in the assassination and did not know of it ahead of time.
Asked what assistance the US would provide if a wider conflict should break out in the Middle East as a result of Haniyeh’s death and the previous night’s killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Austin said Washington would continue to defend Israel if it were attacked, but that the priority was de-escalating tensions.
“We certainly will help defend Israel. You saw us do that April [when the US led a coalition of forces that, together with Israel, almost completely thwarted an Iranian attack on Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles]. You can expect to see us do that again,” he said, referring to the attack Iran launched against Israel in response to the bombing of Revolutionary Guards commanders in a building in its Syrian consulate.
“We don’t want to see any of that happen,” Austin added, however. “We’re going to work hard to make sure that we’re doing things to help take the temperature down and address issues through diplomatic gatherings.”
Speaking at a press conference in the Philippines, Austin said he didn’t believe a wider war in the Middle East to be “inevitable.”
“I think there’s always room and opportunities for diplomacy,” the defense official said, adding that “what we have seen along the border, northern border, with Israel over time — that’s been a concern of ours.”
“Again, We are going to give everything we can to make sure that we keep things from turning into a broader conflict throughout the region,” he added.
Later on Wednesday, in a phone call with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding Hezbollah and Lebanon, Austin reiterated the US’s belief in Israel’s right to self defense.
A readout from Austin’s office said the two spoke about Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s July 27 attack which killed 12 children in a soccer field in northern Israel, and discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said in turn that the US official had been given an update on the “precise operation” that killed Hezbollah top commander Fuad Shukr.
Gallant “referred to the operation as a direct response to Hezbollah’s attack and the murder of 12 children in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams,” the readout stated. “Minister Gallant emphasized that Israel does not seek war; however, the IDF remains prepared to defend its citizens and to respond to any attack by Hezbollah.”
Neither the readout from the Pentagon nor from the Defense Ministry mentioned Haniyeh, as the US has said it was “not aware or involved in” the targeted assassination, and the Israeli government said it would not be commenting on the matter.
The Pentagon said, however, that the two defense officials “discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups,” and Austin “reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and right to self-defense.”
The two were also said by the Pentagon to have “discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution that enables citizens on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border to safely return to their homes.”
Finally, Gallant stressed to Austin that “especially during these times, the State of Israel is working to achieve a framework for the release of the hostages.”
To that end, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated his call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, despite the killing of Haniyeh and amid concerns that it could prompt the Hamas terror group to withdraw from negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the 10-month-old war in Gaza.
Speaking to Channel News Asia, Blinken said he would not speculate about the impact on ceasefire efforts, but that “the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains.”
Washington is Israel’s key military backer, and has been pushing for the Gaza ceasefire, which Blinken said remains “manifestly in the interests” of the Israeli hostages, and of the Gazan civilians who have been “caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making.”
The US State Department later said that Blinken had spoken with Qatari Prime Minister Muhammad al-Thani, who has been a key mediator in the negotiations, and “emphasized the importance of continuing to work to reach a ceasefire.”
It added that the US “would continue to work to ensure an agreement is reached.”
In Jordan, a key US ally, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed “the dangerous escalation taking place in the region and the steps required to stop it,” in a phone call with Blinken.
Safadi stressed that stopping Israel’s war in Gaza “must be the main immediate priority,” and also repeated his earlier condemnation of the assassination of Haniyeh, calling it “a heinous crime, a violation of international law, and a dangerous escalation.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Wednesday afternoon for all parties to show restraint and avoid further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East after both Iran and its proxies — including Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen — vowed that Israel would be dealt a “harsh and painful response” following Haniyeh’s death.
“Hamas is a terrorist organization that has carried out countless cruel and deadly attacks on Israel. The central issue now is to prevent a regional conflagration and not plunge the entire region into chaos,” Baerbock said in a news conference.
‘On the brink of global conflict’
She said any decision made now could either ease the situation or inflame it further, and called on all parties in the conflict to “exercise maximum restraint and deescalate in the interest of the people in the region.”
The German government had also called for restraint earlier in the day, with foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer telling reporters that “the logic of tit-for-tat reprisals is the wrong path.”
In Russia, a spokesman for the foreign ministry condemned the killing of Haniyeh, saying that “the organizers of this political assassination were aware of the dangerous consequences this action is fraught with for the entire region.”
The spokesman warned that the region was “balancing on the brink of global conflict,” and lambasted all sides for continuing “to raise the stakes.”
He charged that the “manic desire” of the United States to monopolize the process of political settlement in the Middle East had led to this situation.
China, too, said it firmly opposed and condemned the assassination, and warned that the incident could lead to further regional instability.
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