Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant traveled to a meeting with senior officials of the Joe Biden administration in Washington for what he described as “critical” discussions about the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, The Guardian reports.
Accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Gallant will meet with the United States (U.S.) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein.
Gallant’s visit comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterates his claim that the Biden administration has “dramatically reduced” arms shipments to Israel in recent months, a charge that angered U.S. officials who described it as “puzzling”.
Netanyahu repeated these claims yesterday and again underlined his resistance to ending the war in Gaza while Hamas is still active there, which is one of Hezbollah’s conditions for de-escalation.
“During these meetings, I plan to discuss developments in Gaza and Lebanon. These conversations are especially important and influential at this time. We are ready for any action that may be required in Gaza, Lebanon and additional areas,” Gallant said.
“The transition to phase C in Gaza is of great importance. I will discuss this with American officials, how it can enable additional things, and I know we will have close cooperation with the U.S. on this issue,” he said.
Amid concerns that the conflict with Hezbollah could escalate into a wider war, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, repeated threats that his movement would attack across Israel.
On Saturday evening, the Lebanese Armed Forces released a video showing Israeli positions and coordinates, along with a clip of a speech from last week in which Nasrallah said: “If war is imposed on Lebanon, the resistance will fight without restrictions or rules.”
In a speech on Wednesday, Nasrallah said leaders of militant groups from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries had previously offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah, but said the group already had more than 100,000 fighters.
“We told them, thank you, but we are overwhelmed with the number we have,” Nasrallah said.
Officials from Iran-backed Lebanese and Iraqi groups say fighters from across the region will participate if war breaks out on the Lebanon-Israel border. Thousands of such fighters are already deployed in Syria and could easily cross the border into Lebanon.
“We will fight side by side with Hezbollah” if all-out war breaks out, one official of the Iran-backed group in Iraq told The Associated Press in Baghdad on condition of anonymity.
