US works to prevent Middle East escalation

摘要

President Joe Biden’s administration has ordered an aircraft carrier group to the eastern Mediterranean region and is rushing air defence and other military assets to Israel in a warning to regional “state and non-state actors” not to take advantage of Gaza-based group Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on 7 October. Iran and Iran-backed, Lebanon-based group Hezbollah are the targets of US cautionary moves. But efforts by the White House to prevent broader Middle East escalation will have to include dissuading Israel from carrying out retaliatory attacks against Iran, a country that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for more than a decade has viewed as Israel’s principal adversary