Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has assured the Biden-Harris administration that Israel will not go after Iranian oil or nuclear sites, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Israel is expected to soon attack Iran after the latter country launched hundreds of ballistic missiles from within its own border into Israeli territory in late September. Israel has vowed to retaliate against Iran for the strike, and although the timing and exact nature of the attack are unclear, Netanyahu has told the Biden-Harris administration the strikes will hone in on Iranian military targets rather than oil or nuclear facilities, officials told the WSJ.
That promise was made by Netanyahu during a phone call with President Biden last week, and in recent discussions between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the officials told the WSJ, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of discussions.
“The Biden administration certainly asked — or demanded — that they don’t aim at the nuclear sites,” Gabriel Noronha, former State Department official, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
But other officials who spoke to The Associated Press warned that it’s possible this promise could be broken, and that Israel may act in a way that catches the Biden-Harris administration off guard. There have been numerous instances in recent months where Israel carried out military operations without warning the Biden-Harris administration first, such as the assassination of the leader of Hezbollah on Sept. 27.
“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Noronha told the DCNF that given the stakes, the Israeli government is likely being transparent about their intentions in the strikes.
“They understand that they have to or that it is in their interest to be cooperative and transparent when they can. So I suspect they are sharing most of the targets,” Noronha said.
Biden has said he wouldn’t support a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and expressed resistance to the idea of the country going after Iranian oil facilities such as refineries, according to Reuters.
Iran has been supporting various terrorist networks throughout the Middle East that have been attacking Israel over the last year, including Hamas, which invaded Israel on Oct. 7 and killed roughly 1,200 people. With Hamas largely defeated, Israel is now turning its primary focus toward Hezbollah and Iran.
“The answer is no,” Biden told reporters on Oct. 2 when asked if he’d support a strike on Iranian nuclear sites. “And I think there’s things — we’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but they — every- — all seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond in proportion.”
The Pentagon and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include additional expert commentary on the discussions between Israel and the Biden-Harris administration.
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