President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with national security officials in the White House Situation Room on Monday, as Iran reiterates its intention to punish Israel for the apparent assassination of top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The meeting will focus on developments in the Middle East, the White House said. Concerns about a wider regional conflict have escalated with the assassination of Haniyeh.
While Israel has not acknowledged the strike in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to seek revenge against Israel after Haniyeh’s death.
Attacks by Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group could come as soon as Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told leaders with the Group of Seven on a conference call Sunday, Axios reported, citing three sources briefed on the call.
The call was arranged in a last-minute effort to urge Iran and Hezbollah to limit their attacks as much as possible to prevent an all-out war, Axios added.
G7 members have reached out to Iran to minimize the retaliation for the sake of preventing a regional war, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry told reporters Monday that the Islamic Republic does not want to deepen tensions but has the right, within the framework of international law, to punish Israel, according to Bloomberg.
“Reinforcing stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against Israel and its adventurism,” the spokesperson said, per Bloomberg.
Haniyeh’s death followed an already tense week in the region, after Israel killed Fuad Shukr, the top military leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut.
Several foreign policy experts suggested last week the consecutive deaths of the militant leaders are sure to escalate already rising tensions, coming just more just more than three months after Iran directly fired at Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones in an unprecedented attack.
Some experts, meanwhile, told The Hill that Tehran most likely does not have the resources to repeat April's massive attack on Israel and may instead responds through its proxies, including Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that his nation is already in a "multifront war" with Iran and its proxies. Tensions have been rising since early October, when Hamas launched a surprise assault on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others.
Israel's subsequent war in Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people, as Netanyahu pledges to eliminate the threat of Hamas. Israel has also faced rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon for the last 10 months.
“We are doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told ABC News on Sunday.
