WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday that “prudent contingency planning” is underway to evacuate Americans from the Middle East in case the Israel-Hamas war spreads into a broad regional conflict.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed there are currently no “active efforts” to evacuate Americans from the region beyond charter flights the USgovernment began operating earlier this month out of Israel.
“It would be imprudent and irresponsible if we didn’t have folks thinking through a broad range of contingencies and possibilities,” Kirby said. “And certainly evacuations are one of those things.”
The White House addressed the contingency plans amid growing concerns that the 18-day-old Israel-Hamas war could further escalate. The US has advised Israel that postponing a possible ground invasion of Gaza could be helpful as the US and other partners in the region try to secure the release of more than 200 hostages who were captured in the Oct. 7 attack on Hamas soil. The contingency planning was first reported by The Washington Post.
President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Tuesday about the deteriorating situation. It was the two leaders’ first interaction since before the Hamas attack on Israel.
Biden and the crown prince spoke about “efforts to deter state and non-state actors from widening the conflict between Israel and Hamas,” according to the White House. Biden administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran not to become involved in the conflict. US forces in the region over the last few days have come under repeated attacks that the Pentagon has said were likely endorsed by Iran, which is the chief sponsor of Hamas, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, as well as militant groups in Iraq and Yemen.
“The two leaders agreed on pursuing broader diplomatic efforts to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding,” the White House added.
At the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the US is preparing for an increase in violence, noting that there have already been at least 13 attacks against troops and installations in Iraq and Syria.
“What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against US forces and personnel across the region in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces and ultimately from Iran,” said Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary.
He added that the US won’t hesitate to take action if needed to protect its forces and interests in the region.
Biden said last week he believed that Hamas was motivated to attack Israel in part by a desire to stop that country from normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.
“One of the reasons ... why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser. The US president said he thinks Hamas militants launched their deadly assault on Oct. 7 because “guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel” and were near being able to formally do so.
An agreement, which the White House says it continues to pursue, would be a feat of diplomacy that could have enabled broader recognition of Israel by other Arab and Muslim-majority nations that have largely opposed Israel since its creation 75 years ago in a territory where Palestinians have long resided.
But talks were interrupted after Hamas militants stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip where Palestinians live into nearby Israeli towns.
Israel sealed off Gaza in response, and Biden told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that humanitarian aid into the territory wasn’t arriving fast enough.
Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water, fuel and medicine. The aid convoys allowed into Gaza so far have carried a fraction of what’s needed.
The president made his comments to reporters about the speed of aid flowing into Gaza after presenting science and technology awards to several Americans for exemplary achievements that have had a positive impact on the United States.
One of the recipients, Sheldon Weinbaum of the City College of New York, wore a “Stop War” button on his suit coat lapel as he received his medal from Biden.
Biden suggested the ceremony was a welcome break from the grim news coming out of the Middle East.
“This is a happy occasion,” Biden said at the start of the White House ceremony. “We need some more happy occasions.”
The war is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed and 16,297 wounded. In the occupied West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.
“This is war. It is combat. It is bloody, it is ugly, and it’s going to be messy,” Kirby said. “I wish I could tell you something different. I wish that that wasn’t going to happen.”
Ryder said several new force protection measures are now underway, including the deployment of air defense systems. He said a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional Patriot missile battalions have begun to move to undisclosed locations in the Middle East.
The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot battalions are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
Ryder also said that additional forces have moved into the Middle East. He said the New Jersey Air National Guard’s 119 Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, with its F-16 fighter jets, arrived on Tuesday, but officials would not say where exactly it went.
US developing contingency plans to evacuate Americans from Middle East in case Israel-Hamas war spreads
https://arab.news/jq2nt
US developing contingency plans to evacuate Americans from Middle East in case Israel-Hamas war spreads
- The White House addressed the contingency plans amid growing concerns that the 18-day-old Israel-Hamas war could further escalate
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
