Biden to speak to Netanyahu about Iran retaliation on Wednesday, Axios reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about any plans to strike Iran, Axios reported late on Tuesday, citing three U.S. officials.

“We want to use the call to try and shape the limitations of the Israeli retaliation,” a U.S. official was quoted as saying by Axios.

Axios cited the U.S. official as saying that Washington wants to make sure Israel attacks targets in Iran that are significant without being disproportionate.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack from Iran last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.

Netanyahu has promised that arch foe Iran would pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with “vast destruction”, raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.

Biden said last Friday that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes, adding he thought Israel had not concluded how to respond to Iran.

Israel has faced calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon by the United States and other allies, but has said it will continue its military operations until Israelis are safe.

Israel says it is defending itself after Hamas militants attack southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies, and other militants like Hezbollah who support Hamas.

The United States has said it supports Israel going after Iran-backed extremist targets like Hezbollah and Hamas.

But Israel and Netanyahu in particular have faced widespread condemnation over the nearly 42,000 killings in the Gaza war, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, and the deaths of over 2,000 people in Lebanon.

About three million people in Gaza and Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s military campaigns, according to Palestinian and Lebanese officials, and Gaza is also facing a humanitarian crisis with a lack of food and fresh water.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Michael Perry)