White House publicly keeps its cool as Israel-Hezbollah war looms

WILMINGTON, Delaware — Biden administration officials are publicly downplaying ongoing tension between Israel and Hezbollah as fears mount that both sides are lumbering towards a war on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of this weekend’s Quad summit in Wilmington, Delaware, national security adviser Jake Sullivan praised reports that Israeli airstrikes in Beirut potentially killed a Hezbollah commander accused of being involved in the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. servicemembers and the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people.

But Sullivan stopped short of calling the Israeli actions an escalation in the ongoing skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, which the U.S. and many of its allies consider to be a terrorist organization. He also pointed the finger at Hezbollah for the recent upsurge of attacks between the two sides, noting that the Iran-backed militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent speech that his group admitted they “opened the Northern front.”

“Israel didn’t start just randomly attacking into Lebanon, Hezbollah and its allies, its terrorist allies in Lebanon, started attacking Israel, and tens of thousands of Israeli citizens had to leave their homes. That led to an exchange of fire, and then Lebanese citizens had to leave their homes, and we’ve been in that dynamic ever since,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added, “We actually believe there is also a distinct avenue to getting to a cessation of hostilities and a durable solution that makes people on both sides of the [Lebanon-Israel] border feel secure, and we’re going to do everything we can to bring that about.”

Sullivan’s comments represent the most direct administration response to the volleys of attacks between the two sides that further escalated this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives exploded all over Lebanon, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands, including civilians. Israel has declined to comment on its involvement, while U.S. officials have said that Washington had no role in any of the attacks.

Israel and Hezbollah have long clashed along the Israel-Lebanon border, though the militant group significantly increased its rocket fire into Israeli territory following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.

On Friday, as reports came of expanded rocket attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby punted when asked for an administration reaction, saying then that the White House was still hopeful about the diplomatic process and that “we don’t want to see a second war.”

Privately, however, U.S. officials have acknowledged that the strikes are a major setback in Washington’s nearly yearlong effort to avoid an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which may bleed into a larger Middle East conflict. And U.S. officials have said that the administration internally assesses that talks with both sides and regional partners notwithstanding, de-escalation will be difficult to achieve in the near future.

Sullivan acknowledged that the stakes are high and that this moment is particularly delicate, saying “The risk of escalation is real. It has been since October 7th.”

“There are moments where it is more acute than others. I think we are in one of those moments where it is more acute,” he added.