The White House said on Sunday it had not been warned in advance of the airstrike that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a Beirut suburb and assumed it had caused civilian casualties, while reaffirming its “ironclad” support to Israel.
John Kirby, the national security spokesperson, said the US had not been informed of the airstrike, and that the president, Joe Biden, only found out about it once Israeli planes were already in the air.
Speaking to CNN, Kirby also said there was “no question” that civilians had been killed in the attack. “We certainly assume there have been civilian casualties. I don’t think we can quantify it right now but we are in touch with our Israeli counterparts,” Kirby said.
Iran has said the US is “complicit” in Israel’s action and promised retaliation for Friday’s massive airstrike in Beirut, which killed Nasrallah and raised fears that the conflict in the Middle East could spin out of control.
“We’ve been concerned from the beginning that this could widen to become a regional war,” Kirby said. “We’ll watched the rhetoric coming out of Iran and we’ll watch what they do. We have capability to defend our troops and our facilities as well as Israel itself if it comes to that.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is reported to have learned about the strike only when he landed in Washington from speaking in New York. He said he believed diplomacy was the best path forward as Israel’s bombing of Lebanon continues.
Speaking to reporters in New York on Friday afternoon, Blinken said the Middle East and the world faced “a precarious moment”.
On Saturday the US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to discuss the situation in Lebanon. According to the defense department, Austin reiterated that Israel had a right to defend itself and that the US “is committed to deterring Iran and Iranian-backed partners and proxies from taking advantage of the situation or expanding the conflict”.
Kirby said on Sunday that “our support for Israel’s security remains ironclad and that’s not going to change.”
But, he added, that did not mean Biden and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu “aren’t capable of having tough conversations with one another, and President Biden will continue to stand for the right to protect civilian people”.
Kirby said: “I don’t think anyone is mourning the loss of Mr Nasrallah, a known terrorist with American and Israeli blood on his hands. While we don’t mourn his death, we certainly mourn the loss of any civilian life.”
But he refused to be drawn into criticism of Israel’s tactic of dropping bombs, which appeared to be US-made, according to reports, into a densely packed Beirut neighborhood. “Having decimated the command structure of Hezbollah certainly works to Israeli’s advantage and is good for the region and good for the world.
“We are continuing to talk to Israeli’s about what the right next steps are … and the president believes there needs to be time and space for diplomacy. That means we’d like to see a ceasefire in place for diplomacy to breathe.”
Senior political figures also spoke out Sunday on Israel’s strike in Beirut.
“The IDF sent a powerful message to Hezbollah,” the Arizona senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, told NBC.
“It’s good Nasrallah is dead. He’s a terrorist. He’s killed so many innocent people, and that needs to be addressed. It has been addressed.”
Kelly said Israel had made progress on concerns over civilian casualties.
“I’ve seen some positive responses,” he said. “We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs, and we continue to provide those weapons. That 2000-pound bomb that was used … to take out Nasrallah … I’m pretty confident that was a guided weapon that was used in that case.”
The Republican senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, was asked if he thought Iran would retaliate. “That will be Iran’s decision to make,” Rubio said. “Anytime the Iranian regime is on defense, it’s good for the world, good for America and good for Israel.”