US pressure over Israel's retaliation against Iran appears to have paid off – for now | World News

Publicly and privately, the United States is pressuring Israel to carefully craft its retaliation against Iran.

The October 1 Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel (itself a retaliation in a series of escalating actions by both sides) required a significant Israeli response – of that Joe Biden's administration had no doubt.

But President Biden's diplomatic challenge has been to persuade Israel to act wisely his answerknowing that anything too big could trigger a rapid spiral into all-out regional war that would drag America in.

The problem for Biden was that his ability to influence Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu last year — in Gaza and then Lebanon — was limited.

Latest from the Middle East: IDF confirms air strikes on Tehran

And so Biden's position on how he thinks Israel should retaliate has been unusually publicly articulated – a few weeks ago he told reporters on the airport tarmac that he didn't think Israel should attack Iran's nuclear sites or oil facilities.

Intensive diplomacy was carried out in private.

Antony Blinken has just returned from a tour of the region, which included a trip to Israel.

Part of this was continuing pressure on Israel to shape its retaliation in a way that would restore deterrence but not trigger escalation.

We do not yet know how Iran will respond to the night's events, but Americans view the nature of the Israeli attacks as consistent with White House recommendations.

At a late-night briefing in Washington, a senior US government official told Sky News: “This should be the end of direct military exchanges between Israel and Iran… As far as we are concerned, this should end direct exchanges between Israel and Iran.

“Tonight Israel carried out a direct military response against Iran,” the official said. They described them as “precise airstrikes against multiple targets throughout Iran and outside populated areas.”

“The president and his national security team have of course been working with the Israelis over the past few weeks to encourage Israel to deliver a targeted and proportionate response with little risk of civilian harm, and that is exactly what happened tonight.”

“Should Iran decide to respond, we are fully prepared to defend ourselves again against any attack.”

“If Iran decides to respond again, we will be ready and there will be consequences for Iran again.”

“However, we don’t want that to happen. This should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran. Israel has made it clear to the world that its response is now complete.”

Analysis:
The extent of retaliation will determine whether Iran and Israel are on the path to all-out war

The official also called on influential countries to pressure Iran to stop attacks on Israel.

The official emphasized: “We did not take part in this military operation.”