The United States’ top general advised Iran not to get involved in the Israeli issue and said he did not want the situation to escalate, as the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched a barrage of missiles into northern Israel.
The White House stated earlier on Monday that Iran was complicit, despite the fact that the US has no intelligence or evidence pointing to Iran’s direct participation in assaults in Israel by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Asked what his message for Iran was, General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “Not to get involved.”
On Monday, at least three Hezbollah fighters were killed by Israeli shelling in Lebanon, and Israel reported one of its officers was killed in an earlier cross-border incursion claimed by Palestinians in Lebanon.
The cross-border fighting extended a war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Israeli-Lebanese border further north.
In 2006, Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fought a deadly month-long battle.
“We want to send a pretty strong message. We do not want this to broaden and the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear,” Brown told a small group of reporters traveling with him to Brussels, in his first public comments since being confirmed to the job last month.
The US military is “surging” new supply of air defences, weapons, and other security aid to Israel in response to Hamas’ extraordinary weekend onslaught.
The Pentagon revealed on Sunday that it was sending an aircraft carrier strike group closer to Israel.
“It sends a very strong message of support for Israel. But it’s also to send a strong message of deterrence to contain broadening this particular conflict,” Brown said.
He compared Hamas’ actions to those of Islamic State militants.
Brown has been the deputy commander of US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, and oversaw coalition air operations against Islamic State.
Via Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/5I8G9tK
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