WASHINGTON/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday amid tensions with Iran while Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said an Israeli strike against Iran will be “lethal, precise and surprising.”
The call, confirmed by both countries, was the first known chat for Biden and Netanyahu since August and coincided with a sharp escalation of Israel’s conflict with both Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah with no sign of an imminent ceasefire to end the conflict with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza. The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.
After describing Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack as a failure, Gallant said in a video issued by his office: “Whoever attacks us will be hurt and will pay a price. Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results.”
Netanyahu has promised that arch-foe Iran will pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Relations between Biden and Netanyahu have been tense, strained over the Israeli leader’s handling of the war in Gaza and the conflict with Hezbollah.
In “War,” a book out next week, journalist Bob Woodward reports that Biden regularly accused Netanyahu of having no strategy, and shouted “Bibi, what the fuck?” at him in July, after Israeli strikes near Beirut and in Iran. Asked about the book, one US official familiar with the two leaders’ past interactions said Biden has used sharp, direct, unfiltered and colorful language both with and about Netanyahu while in office.
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