U.S. won’t back Israeli strike on Iran nukes as conflict expands, Biden says

President Biden said Wednesday that the U.S. won’t back Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, the first clear marker from Washington as Israel weighs its response to the massive ballistic missile assault from Tehran a day earlier.

Meanwhile, Israel said eight of its soldiers were killed fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon.

Mr. Biden’s comments effectively gave Israel his support to strike back at Iran but underscored the White House’s desire to limit further escalation in a Middle East conflict that appears on the verge of boiling over.

“The answer is no,” the president said after being asked about the prospect of Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Before leaving the White House, Mr. Biden convened a call of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations: the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan. The bloc said in a statement afterward that it “unequivocally condemned” the Iranian attack on Israel.

“We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of [the G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally,” Mr. Biden told reporters just before boarding Air Force One to fly to North Carolina, where he toured damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

Mr. Biden said the U.S. is consulting closely with Israel but has cautioned against an overreaction. The White House hopes to avoid an all-out war that could drag the U.S. even deeper into the Middle East.

Still, administration officials have taken a relatively tough line toward Tehran since the Tuesday attack. Rather than urging Israel to hold its fire, U.S. officials have made clear that Iran must pay a price for that assault on Israel — the second in six months — and that the U.S. will aid Israel in exacting that price.

“Let me be clear: The Iranian regime will be held responsible for its actions,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday.

Iranian officials say they were responding to a series of Israeli military escalations in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, capped by the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a close Iranian ally, last week near Beirut. That strike also killed Iranian Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, a top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israel is also widely thought to be responsible for a July strike in Tehran that killed Ismail Haniyeh, the former political leader of Hamas. The operation was deeply embarrassing to Iran’s theocratic regime.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who assumed office just over two months ago, is likely under intense domestic pressure over the escalating confrontation with Israel. Mr. Pezeshkian, billed as a reformer in Iranian politics, traveled to Qatar for a previously scheduled conference on Wednesday and issued his own warnings.

“If the Zionist regime does not stop its crimes, it will face harsher reactions,” he said, as reported by Reuters.

He said Iran was forced to take action this week in the face of Israeli provocations and insisted that Tehran was not looking to ignite a regional war against the powerful Israeli military.

“If [Israel] wants to react, we will have a stronger response. This is what the Islamic republic is committed to. We are not looking for war. It is Israel that forces us to react,” he said in a press briefing with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Hours after the U.S., Israel and other partners shot down nearly 200 Iranian projectiles, Israeli troops pushed deeper into southern Lebanon and clashed with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Israel said eight of its soldiers were killed in combat on Wednesday, the first Israel Defense Forces deaths since it began its ground incursion into Lebanon this week. Late Wednesday night, the IDF confirmed in an online post that it had launched a “precise strike” in Beirut, where Hezbollah is based, and said details of the mission would be released later.

The Agence France-Presse news wire reported that the target of the strike may have been Nasrallah’s son-in-law, Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir. Lebanon’s health ministry said 46 people had been killed and 85 wounded by Israeli strikes in 24 hours.

The Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon, along with its ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its bombing of Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, represent the multifront war that Israel is waging against Iran and its regional network of allied militias.

Time to strike?

Inside Israel, there is a growing sense that Iran and its proxy forces are more vulnerable than ever and now may be the moment to strike with unprecedented force and permanently eliminate threats to the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s once-dismal poll numbers climbed after the Israeli military dealt a string of punishing blows to its adversaries in the region. Some of Mr. Netanyahu’s domestic political rivals are now calling for an even more severe blow to Iran.

“The response must be harsh and send a clear message to the entire axis: Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza,” Israeli political opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a statement Wednesday, according to Israeli media.

Lebanon’s weak central government, which has been unable in the past to rein in Hezbollah or deter Israeli incursions, made another plea for international support at an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council. Lebanese Ambassador Hadi Hachem pleaded with the council to enforce U.N. resolutions to disarm Hezbollah and give the government’s troops control of southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah and Israeli forces are clashing.

“Lebanon today is stuck between the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of others in the region,” Mr. Hachem said, denouncing Israel’s “barbaric aggression.”

Some analysts say the U.S. ought to back Israel with whatever response it deems appropriate. Micromanaging Israel’s next steps in the hopes of limiting escalation is not wise, said Simone Ledeen, a partner at Texas Venture Partners and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the Pentagon.

“The U.S. must back Israel,” she said. “This is the right place to be. That means we have to let Israel do what is necessary for its defense. The ‘3,000-mile screwdriver’ from Washington, micromanaging Israeli operations, has been a problem for the last year. That interference needs to stop.

“Israel is entering its second year of war. Gaza is at a slow boil, Lebanon is nearing a full-scale conflict, the Houthis [in Yemen] are a persistent nuisance, and Iran is planning its next move,” she said in comments circulated to reporters. “The U.S. is caught in the middle of this whether we like it or not. We need to be in it to win it, just as Israel is.”

With the help of the U.S., the retaliatory options available to Israel are vast. Israel is not guaranteed to heed Mr. Biden’s advice and avoid striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, especially given recent estimates from U.S. and international officials that Iran’s nuclear breakout time — the time in which it could assemble and potentially launch a nuclear weapon — is perhaps as little as one week.

Given the tense situation across the region, Israel may determine that such strikes are justified. Even if it opts against hitting nuclear sites, Israeli forces could strike other Iranian military targets and limit Tehran’s ability to launch further missile attacks.

Israel also could target Iran’s oil production capacity, which would deliver a significant blow to its already struggling economy.

The Israeli response is expected soon.

“Iran made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it. Whoever attacks us, we attack them,” Mr. Netanyahu told a meeting of his top security advisers Tuesday evening.

In April, Iran launched a major drone and missile assault on Israel that also failed.