Sullivan expresses concern over Israel-Lebanon tensions, calls for Hezbollah strike as justice is served
Written by Trevor Hunnicutt
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) – U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday he was concerned about the escalation between Israel and Lebanon but said Israel’s killing of a top Hezbollah leader represented justice for the Iran-backed group.
Sullivan, speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he still sees a way to end the war in Gaza but the US is “not in a position where we are willing to put something on the table.”
Sullivan said the US continues to work with Qatar and Egypt as both countries talk to Hamas, but Washington, as it talks with Israel, is not in a position to propose an agreement that both sides can accept.
“Could that change over the next few days? It could,” said Sullivan.
Hezbollah overnight said 16 of its members, including its main leader Ibrahim Aqil and another senior commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among the 37 people the Lebanese Ministry of Health said were killed in an Israeli airstrike in a suburb of Beirut on Friday.
The Israeli airstrikes, Lebanon’s health minister said, killed three children and seven women, the deadliest in the conflict with Hezbollah since October 8, when the group began firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians in the nearly year-long war with Israel. . against Hamas in Gaza.
Sullivan said Friday’s strike served justice for Aqil, who was wanted by the US for two bombings in Beirut in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the US embassy and a US Marines base.
“Any time a terrorist who has killed Americans faces the law, we believe that is a positive outcome.”
Sullivan said the risk of escalation was “tremendous,” following an Israeli strike and the bombing of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon this month that killed at least 39 and injured nearly 3,000. The attack is believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
“While the risk of escalation is real, we actually believe there is also a different way to end hostilities and a stronger solution that makes people on both sides of the border feel safe,” Sullivan said.
An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltered by displaced people south of Gaza City on Saturday killed at least 22 people, including 13 children and six women, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel said it was aimed at a Hamas compound which it said had been installed in the school.
