Middle East: Biden says Israel should ‘consider other options’ than striking Iran oil sites

American President Joe Biden said this Friday that it was preferable for Israel not to strike Iranian oil sites, after admitting the day before that this possibility was under “discussions”. “If I were in their place, I would consider other options than hitting oil fields” in Iran, he declared during an exchange with the press at the White House.

Since the Jewish state was targeted by a salvo of Iranian missiles on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sworn that the Islamic Republic “made a serious mistake” and “will pay the price”. The head of state has since been thinking about the most effective way to take revenge. US President Joe Biden recognized that Israel had the right to respond to the attack on its territory, but first set a condition: not to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Still in front of the press, the American president affirmed that he was trying to mobilize the international scene to obtain peace in the Middle East. “We do a lot of things. The most important thing we can do is try to mobilize the rest of the world and our allies to help ease tensions between Israel and Iran and its regional partners, he said. in front of the press at the White House.

Tehran adds fuel to the fire

The American army, for its part, announced that it had struck 15 Houthi targets in Yemen, from where these Iran-backed rebels carry out attacks against Israel and against ships they consider linked to this country, as well as to States -United States and United Kingdom.

In a rare speech, Ayatollah Khamenei described his attack at the beginning of the week as just revenge after the assassination, attributed to Israel, of the leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, on July 31 in Tehran, and that, claimed by Israel, by Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on September 27 in Beirut, in a strike that also killed an Iranian general.

The escalation in the Middle East and Lebanon comes after nearly a year of firefights that displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border after Hezbollah opened a front against Israel at the start of the Gaza war. Israel has launched massive bombings in Lebanon since September 23, targeting, according to its army, hundreds of Hezbollah targets. More than a thousand Lebanese have died since that date.