The cancellation comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel last week…reports Asian Lite News
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant unexpectedly cancelled his visit to the Pentagon scheduled for Wednesday, according to the U.S. Department of Defence. Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to speak with U.S. President Joe Biden before Gallant’s departure.
The cancellation comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel last week, the second such incident this year. Although the Pentagon did not specify the reason for Gallant’s cancellation, they referred inquiries to Israel’s Ministry of Defence, which has yet to comment.
Reports suggest Gallant’s visit was intended to enhance U.S.-Israel coordination on Iran. However, Netanyahu reportedly imposed two conditions: a conversation with Biden and approval from the Israeli cabinet regarding the response to Iran.
The White House has not confirmed whether a call between Biden and Netanyahu has been scheduled, though discussions about such a call have been ongoing since late September.
Last week, Biden remarked that Israel had not yet decided how to respond to Iran’s actions and hinted that alternative measures, such as striking Iranian oil fields, might be considered. In response, Iran issued warnings that any attack on its infrastructure would be met with retaliation, and cautioned Gulf states against allowing their airspace to be used for any strikes against Iran.
Gallant said on Tuesday that a senior Hezbollah official, believed to be a potential successor to the group’s leader, may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Gallant was referring to Hashem Safieddine, a senior Shiite cleric widely considered a likely successor to Hassan Nasrallah, who died on September 27 during an Israeli airstrike. This marks the first time an Israeli official has commented on the reported strike on Safieddine, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Defence Minister’s remarks came during a security assessment meeting at the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv. Gallant received a briefing on Israel’s ground campaign in Lebanon and “assessed the continuation of targeted strikes against Hezbollah’s leadership and field commanders”, his office said in a statement.
“When the smoke clears over Lebanon, Iran will understand that they have lost the valuable asset they spent years building — Hezbollah,” Gallant said.
He added, “A year after the war began, Hamas is a dismantled organization, and Hezbollah is a beaten and broken entity, with no command or control capabilities — neither politically nor militarily.”
Hezbollah has lost contact with Safieddine since Friday after an Israeli airstrike on the Dahieh suburb in the south of Beirut. The airstrikes came one week after Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli attack that hit Hezbollah’s headquarters in Dahieh.
Since September 23, Israel has launched an intensive air campaign on Lebanon, dubbed “Arrows of the North”, marking a significant escalation with Hezbollah.
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