(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden for the first time in more than a month as Washington seeks to temper Israel’s retaliation for last week’s missile attack from Iran.
The offices of both leaders confirmed the call, which included Vice President Kamala Harris. The prime minister’s office said the call lasted 50 minutes. The two sides were expected to provide readouts of what was discussed later Wednesday.
The conversation was the first time Biden and Netanyahu had spoken since August. In the weeks since then, Israel has launched a massive campaign to target the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing most of its senior leadership including Hassan Nasrallah as well as at least 1,500 people in air strikes. Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles in response, which the US helped to defend against.
The US has since acknowledged that Israel must respond to the strike from Tehran, and the retaliation is expected to happen at any time. But the administration has urged Netanyahu not to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, worried that doing so will further escalate the conflict and pull in the US.
The call with Biden was scheduled after Netanyahu intervened to cancel a visit to the US by Israel’s defense chief, Yoav Gallant, that was seen as a chance to coordinate the response to Iran with Washington. Instead, Gallant delivered a tough message Wednesday in remarks to Israeli intelligence forces.
“Iran’s attacks on Israel were aggressive, but failed because they were not precise,”’ Gallant said. “Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results.”
The relationship between Biden and Netanyahu has been marked by growing strains over Israel’s rejection of previous US calls for a cease-fire in the wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Relations were further clouded this week by revelations in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward set to be released next week. The book details Biden’s rising frustration with Netanyahu in the months since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an account in the Washington Post, where Woodward is an associate editor.
According to the Post, Biden complained to his staff that Netanyahu is a “liar” only concerned about his own political survival.
Israel has been stepping up its campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and Netanyahu warned Tuesday that the country could face a long war and devastation on the scale of Gaza, which is largely in ruins after a year of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
The military sent a fourth division into the south of Lebanon — a division usually contains 5,000 to 10,000 troops — and has targeted the group with persistent bombing raids. The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday 185 military targets have been attacked in the past day.
Netanyahu called for Lebanese people to “take your country back” from Hezbollah, which is also a political party with substantial support among Shiite Muslims.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets of its own, and two people died Wednesday in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona after a barrage of missiles fired from Lebanon, emergency officials said. The group has also targeted Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, and the surrounding area. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from northern communities, and Netanyahu says their return is a key war objective.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is on a tour of the region to drum up support for opposing Israel’s actions in Lebanon and Gaza. He met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Wednesday, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Naim Qasem, said Tuesday that the group supports efforts for a cease-fire with Israel, without naming a longstanding precondition of a truce in Gaza. Still, Israeli demands for the pullback of Hezbollah to the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, are likely to be unacceptable to the organization.
The US backed the proposed Hezbollah withdrawal, which was required under a United Nations Security Council resolution ending a 2006 war but never implemented. “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability but ultimately we do want to see a diplomatic resolution to this conflict,” Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US State Department, said in a briefing Tuesday.
“The situation on the ground has changed over the past few weeks,” he said. “What we want to see come out of this new situation is the ultimate implementation” of the UN resolution.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are considered terrorist organizations by the US and other countries.
--With assistance from Dan Williams, Henry Meyer and Galit Altstein.
(Updates with Gallant’s comment in sixth paragraph)
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