The killing of the Hezbollah leader represents another balancing act for Biden

CNN
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The death of Hassan Nasrallah has put President Joe Biden in trouble: While no one in the White House shed tears for the longtime Hezbollah leader, the Israeli airstrike that killed him has only increased fears of an escalation of the conflict, Biden says actively work to avoid this.

Immediately after the operation, Biden quickly alerted the public that he had received no warning and was not involved. Only 24 hours later, after both Israel and Hezbollah confirmed that Nasrallah had been killed, Biden released a carefully worded statement in which he declared the death a “measure of justice” but reiterated that his “goal was de-escalation.” be.

For Biden, this moment amounts to another tense balancing act – this time just six weeks before a US presidential election. Already at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the nearly year-long war in Gaza, the president is now working to calm two fronts while his influence over Netanyahu’s decision-making appears to be at an all-time low.

Before Friday’s strike, Netanyahu rejected a ceasefire proposal negotiated by the United States and France that called for a 21-day break in fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border, angering American officials who had been led to believe he was on board.

Israel told the U.S. it would not launch its major operation in Beirut until it had already begun, to the frustration of some American officials who faced what they saw as repeated examples of Netanyahu defying Biden’s public and private pleas for restraint. have become tired.

Speaking to reporters in Delaware on Friday, Biden stressed he knew little about the operation.

“We are still gathering information,” the president said. He reiterated his fears that a major conflict could be on the horizon – which have diminished over the past year but have now peaked: “I’m always worried about that,” he said.

Despite all this concern, Israel’s target was undoubtedly someone the White House wanted dead.

“This is welcome,” a senior administration official told CNN after both the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death.

“No one here is mourning Nasrallah,” another senior government official said, calling the Hezbollah leader a “terrorist” and “murderer.”

“Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands,” Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in a statement released midday Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, it was simply too early to assess what impact Nasrallah’s death would have in the region and the looming possibility of a major escalation, one of the officials said.

The American position currently is to be prepared for a range of possible retaliatory measures – if and when they come – but whether such retaliatory measures would come from Hezbollah, Iran or both is not currently clear, they said.

The Biden administration’s biggest question and concern is what impact Nasrallah’s death will have in the coming days and weeks on the region, where the risk of escalation and widening of the conflict was already high.

If the events of recent days had taken place six months ago, the threat of a second major war may have been even greater, the first senior administration official said. But Hezbollah has been “decimated” and Iran – which backs the militant group – has also been “severely weakened”, the official said.

Over the last month, Israel has destroyed Hezbollah weapons depots and significantly compromised its communications infrastructure, including through attacks on pagers and walkie-talkies.

Another senior US official previously told CNN that the US expects Iran to intervene in the conflict if its leaders realize they are in the process of “losing” Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy group.

As of Saturday, officials said the U.S. had seen no signs that Iran was preparing for a major, sustained retaliation, but acknowledged it was too early.

“Ultimately, our goal is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” Biden wrote in his statement released midday Saturday. “In Gaza, we are pursuing a UN Security Council-backed agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we negotiated an agreement that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon.”

“It is time for these deals to be completed, for the threats to Israel to be eliminated and for the broader Middle East region to achieve greater stability,” he said.

Biden spoke by phone with Harris and her national security team on Saturday about developments in the Middle East, the White House said.

“President Biden convened a conference call with Vice President Harris and his national security team to receive an update on the situation in the Middle East, review the status of U.S. forces in the region, and continue diplomatic efforts to coordinate with allies and partners and de-escalate ongoing conflicts,” the White House said.

In a sign of U.S. fears that the situation could quickly deteriorate, the State Department on Saturday ordered certain employees and their family members to leave Lebanon as the conflict threatens to erupt into all-out war.

The ordered non-emergency departure of staff does not constitute an evacuation of the entire embassy, ​​but reflects increasing volatility in the country and its capital, Beirut.

The departure orders came just days after American officials expressed optimism about a “groundbreaking” proposal that they hoped would end violence on the Israel-Lebanon border.

American officials’ confidence in announcing the proposal was based in part on the fact that they were dealing with Ron Dermer, one of Netanyahu’s closest confidants, as they drafted and revised the statement’s text. Ceasefire talks began Monday with a conversation between Dermer and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser.

U.S. officials were under the impression that Netanyahu would favor a pause in fighting and were encouraged to work with French officials to draft a statement calling for a 21-day ceasefire.

Senior Biden administration officials were furious Thursday after Netanyahu rejected the plan, prompting them to demand a public statement from the Israelis to resolve the diplomatic embarrassment.

Disgruntled senior U.S. officials believed Netanyahu was responding to a backlash from far-right members of his government at home. Israeli officials, meanwhile, attributed the confusion to “miscommunication.”

Be that as it may, by Friday all talk of an impending ceasefire had died down when Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut.

CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.