WASHINGTON DC: US President Joe Biden is set to engage in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking their first conversation since Israel’s targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to a report by Times of Israel.
Notably, the precision strike by Israeli Defence Forces in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday killed Nasrallah. Asked whether an all-out war can be avoided, Biden said, “It has to be.”
The US backed the operation, saying that Hassan Nasrallah’s death “is a measure of justice for his many victims.”
In a statement, Biden had said, “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”
The statement further said, “The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a “northern front” against Israel.”
Following Nasrallah’s death, Netanyahu had issued a warning to Iran’s Ayatollah regime and asserted that those who target Israel will face consequences and that no location in Iran or the Middle East is beyond Israel’s reach.
He called Nasrallah as “main engine of Iran’s axis of evil” and added, “Nasrallah was not just another terrorist, he was the terrorist. He was the axis of the axis, the main engine of Iran’s axis of evil. He and his people were the architects of the plan to destroy Israel. He was not only operated by Iran, he also frequently operated Iran.”
He further said, “All those who oppose the axis of evil, all those who are fighting under the violent dictatorship of Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iran itself and other places, they are all filled with hope today. I say to the citizens of those countries: Israel stands with you. And to the ayatollahs’ regime I say: Those who strike us, we strike them. There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel cannot reach. Today, you already know that this is correct.”
Meanwhile, violent protests erupted in Pakistan’s Karachi on Sunday as demonstrators clashed with police while attempting to march towards the US consulate following Nasrallah’s death, ARY News reported. (ANI)