The move could bolster Israel's defenses and deter Iran. | Source: Bloomberg
5 min read Last Updated: August 12, 2024 | 11:20 PM IST
Dan Williams
The United States has strengthened its naval and air forces in the Mideast to help Israel repel any major attacks from Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah ahead of the resumption of Gaza ceasefire talks scheduled for later this week.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group, equipped with F-35C fighter jets, to expedite its arrival in the region and also sent the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, according to a recording of a phone call Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.
The move would bolster Israel's defenses and could act as a deterrent to Iran, which, along with its proxy group Hezbollah, has vowed to retaliate for back-to-back assassinations of its top fighters in Beirut and Tehran about two weeks ago.
Iran's acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, reiterated his country's determination to punish Israel, particularly for the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Washington wants to avoid a major clash three months before the presidential election. Israel has neither admitted nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh's killing.
The TA-35 benchmark stock index fell 1.4% on Monday, its biggest drop in a week. It was trading 1.3% lower as of 3:47 p.m. Tel Aviv time. The shekel fell 1.3% against the dollar, making it the second-worst performing currency after the Russian ruble in a basket of major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The shekel was trading 1.1% lower at 3.7733 to the dollar.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt last week called for a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks to be held on Aug. 15, an effort to resolve long-stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas more than 10 months after the war began. Hamas opposes the proposal and insists the talks should focus on implementing an earlier plan.
France, Germany and Britain approved the plan for the talks on Monday and urged Iran to refrain from attacking.
Israel has agreed to take part in the talks. One Israeli official said the talks will take place in Doha and will focus on whether Hamas will back down on cease-fire conditions. Another Israeli official said Arab mediators would then hold talks with Hamas. The officials, who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Israel had not backed down on key conditions.
The Gaza conflict erupted on Oct. 7 when Hamas invaded Israel and launched a coordinated rocket attack with Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Yemen-based Houthi rebels. All three groups are backed by Iran and are designated terrorist organizations by the United States.
According to a Pentagon statement, Austin and Gallant discussed “efforts to counter aggression by Iran, Hezbollah and other Iranian-linked groups throughout the region,” as well as progress toward securing a ceasefire and releasing hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Gallant's office emphasized the “interoperability” of Israeli and US military systems, suggesting the allies would fight on a united front.
Previous ceasefire talks have been stalled in part by Israel's determination to resume fighting after any pause in order to completely destroy Hamas, which has been demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian coastal areas it has controlled since 2007 and which are now partly destroyed in months of war.
Other points of contention include how many hostages Hamas is willing to release and when, and which Palestinian prisoners it will offer in return for their release.
An agreement giving Hamas a reprieve could be enough to persuade Iran and its proxies to postpone promised attacks, but Israeli media have speculated that retaliation for the assassination could come before ceasefire talks are scheduled to begin.
Israel's military campaign against Hamas continues, with a deadly attack in Gaza City over the weekend drawing international condemnation. The Israeli military said the attack, which Hamas officials said killed about 100 people, targeted a Hamas “command and control center” inside a school and an adjacent mosque, and that at least 31 militants were among the dead.
“This is our fateful day,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet, the Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted him as saying, adding that he had instructed them not to publicly discuss the conflict. Netanyahu's office has not commented on the report.
But rifts remained among senior officials after the Ynet news site reported that Defense Minister Yoav Galant had made comments in closed parliament that downplayed the notion of “total victory”, Netanyahu's slogan.
A spokesman for Gallant declined to comment on the report, which drew condemnation from Netanyahu. In a statement, the prime minister's office said Gallant's “anti-Israel stance undermines the chances of reaching a hostage release agreement.”
Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian called on Western countries to rein in Israel during a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel on Sunday, according to the state-run Iranian news agency, Islamic Republic News Agency.
“The double standards of the United States and some Western countries have made the Zionist regime more arrogant,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying.
First Published: 12 August 2024 | 11:20 PM IST
