President Biden is “sleepwalking” the US into another “catastrophic” war in the Middle East, one expert says, as Israel prepares a retaliatory strike against Iran following an unprecedented drone and missile bombardment over the weekend.
Biden, 81, has been slammed by both supporters of Israel and opponents of the Jewish state for his handling of the six-month-old war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas terrorists, which threatens to spiral into a wider conflict following Saturday’s assault.
“The strategy of the Biden administration has failed miserably,” Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations and Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, told NBC News Sunday.
“His overarching goal of preventing the war in Gaza from escalating into neighboring countries has failed. Biden has failed to influence [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s decisions either in Gaza or towards Iran.”
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Peter Lerner confirmed Monday that Netanyahu’s retaliation against Iran could mean “strike or no strike.”
Lerner said the military is considering a “wide range of options” as there are “a lot of different scenarios.”
He told reporters the Israeli government will “decide on the steps forward” in the coming days.
“Just because we were successful in intercepting, we shouldn’t underestimate what Iran did,” Lerner added.
Netanyahu’s war cabinet was meeting Monday to decide on a response.
Israeli officials said the Netanyahu government favored retaliation but was split over the timing and scale of the response.
Biden has warned Netanyahu the US will not participate in any Israeli counteroffensive against Iran, American officials said.
With Israel and Iran teetering on the brink of open warfare, Jerusalem’s European allies rushed to call for restraint.
“We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told Spanish radio station Onda Cero. “We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron sought to downplay Saturday night’s attack, which saw the firing of more than 300 Iranian kamikaze drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted by Israeli and allied air defenses.
“Of course if you’re sitting in Israel this morning, you’re thinking quite rightly, ‘We have every right to respond,’ and they do,” he told Sky News. “But we are urging that they should not escalate.”
“In many ways this has been a double defeat for Iran,” Cameron continued. “The attack has been almost a total failure and they revealed to the world that they are the malign influence in the region prepared to do this. So our hope is that there won’t be a retaliatory response.”
French President Emmanuel Macron likewise urged Israel to set its sights on isolating Iran rather than military escalation, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned Tehran not to carry out more attacks.
The only serious injury reported inside Israel was a 7-year-old girl from a Bedouin community who was struck in the head by shrapnel.
The child, whose identity was not made public, remained in a life-threatening condition at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba after undergoing surgery, reported the Times of Israel.
“It fell on us into the house at around 2 in the morning. She was sleeping in the house and we immediately took her to Soroka hospital,” said the girl’s father, identified only as Mohammed.
With Post wires
