On UN summit sidelines, US seeks off-ramp to Israel-Hezbollah conflict
A senior State Department official said Washington had "concrete ideas" to de-escalate the mounting crisis in Lebanon and warned against an Israeli ground offensive.
NEW YORK — As the annual UN General Assembly got underway in New York City, the Biden administration was mounting a full-court diplomatic press on its margins to avert a full-scale war in the Middle East.
President Joe Biden insisted a “diplomatic solution is still possible” in his address to world leaders on Tuesday, a day after Lebanese authorities said Israeli strikes killed 558 people, including more than 90 women and children, in what was the country’s deadliest day since the 2006 war.
Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday, as Israeli strikes hit a six-story building in a neighborhood south of Beirut, killing six people and injuring 15 others, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency. The latest aerial bombardment came as Lebanon is still reeling from a wave of deadly pager and walkie-talkie blasts that Israel used to target the Iran-backed militants last week.
A senior State Department official said the administration has “concrete ideas” to break “the cycle of strike-counterstrike” between Israel and Hezbollah that it will be discussing with allies and partners gathered in New York this week.
