President Joe Biden said he expects Tehran to hold off attacking Israel if a Gaza ceasefire agreement is reached, as negotiations are set to resume on Thursday in Doha.
Asked by reporters during a visit to New Orleans on Tuesday whether a deal could prevent a promised retaliation for the targeted killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, the president replied, “That’s my expectation.”
Biden acknowledged that achieving an agreement is “getting harder,” but expressed determination to reach a deal that would end hostilities and free the hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 invasion of the northwestern Negev.
“We’ll see what Iran does and we’ll see what happens if there is any attack. But I’m not giving up,” Biden told reporters on the tarmac after arriving at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
Three senior Iranian officials told Reuters on Tuesday that only a ceasefire deal can prevent an Iranian attack on Israel.
One of the sources, a senior Iranian security official, said the Islamic Republic and its regional terrorist proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, would carry out a direct attack if the Gaza talks fail or if Jerusalem is perceived to be dragging out the negotiations.
Tehran has been engaged in an “intense dialogue” with the United States and other Western countries on “ways to calibrate retaliation,” the sources said.
Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah have accused Israel of targeting Haniyeh, but Jerusalem has not taken responsibility. Separately, Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the killing in Beirut of its top commander Fuad Shukr, which Israel did take credit for.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that Qatar had assured Washington that it will “work to have Hamas represented” at Thursday’s talks.
The terrorist group on Sunday announced that it will not attend Thursday’s meeting unless there was a “clear commitment” from the Israeli government to approve the ceasefire proposal put forward by Hamas in July in response to the U.S.-backed outline.
Israel immediately accepted the Aug. 8 invitation from the United States, Egypt and Qatar to attend the meeting. Despite Hamas deciding not to send representatives to the talks, the mediators still plan to hold them. Patel said that the U.S. “fully expects these talks to move forward.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk will be traveling to Cairo and Doha in the coming days and that U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein is slated to visit Lebanon to attempt to deter further regional escalation.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has delayed a Middle East tour aimed at securing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas while at the same time preventing a wider war in the region.
The American diplomat was scheduled to depart on Tuesday for Israel, Egypt and Qatar, but two sources said that his trip was postponed over “uncertainty about the situation.”
