President Biden though meeting with the G7 leaders White House correspondent Mary Alis Parks is at the White House with more on that so the G7 leaders say that they stand ready to actually take further measures so what exactly could those further measures be yeah K the administration making very clear that what they saw last night from Iran was unprecedented massive uh senior Administration officials relaying to reporters that was on the high end of even what they expected from Iran and that they believe Iran was absolutely in intent in causing unbelievable damage there in Israel but that luckily Israel’s defense capabilities held in large part with the help of US forces and assets sent to the region to actively work alongside Israeli troops to defend Israel.
US-Israel Response
The president was trying to reiterate to Netanyahu that Israel should feel really proud that the defense systems held. And that the president was trying to encourage him to, at this moment, now sort of reassess things, take a serious evaluation about what exactly happened, and slow things down. I mean, clearly, the White House is still worried about a potential Israeli response that could escalate things further, but that doesn’t mean that the US isn’t expecting that Israel might very well, respond in some way.
Now, the US wouldn’t be a part of any kind of military response to Iran, US officials are making that pretty clear. But the G7 could respond diplomatically, economically. They put out a joint statement, are really saying that Iran should be held accountable for what happened, for what it did, for its attack on Israel. And I think they’re in the process of developing what kind of unified diplomatic, economic response.
Regional Tensions Escalation
The president has had other phone calls with privately about trying to calm these tensions moving forward? I mean, I think it is exactly that, here the president talking to, these leaders in the region, trying to calm tensions, wanting to make sure that things don’t continue to spiral. I mean, that has been the White House’s concern. I mean, frankly, for weeks, but especially in, today, an anxiety that a response carried by a response, a response to a response, could escalate things out of control.
And we’ve seen and heard that message from other leaders throughout the region. You know, not only the US and leaders in Europe, but like you said, it’s the same message we’ve been hearing from a lot of leaders right there around Israel, an anxiety that things could spiral, hope that they won’t. And of course, this comes at a really complicated time. I mean, the president had tough conversations with Israel in the last few weeks about Israel’s war in Gaza. Obviously, the Jordanians worried about that as well, still worried about how Israel might be moving in the south of Gaza. And I’m sure the president trying to reiterate to all of these partners that he is continuing to work with Israel.