Biden says US 'discussing' possible Israeli plans to attack Iranian oil industry | Israel

Joe Biden said his administration has “discussed” possible Israeli plans to attack Iran's oil industry in retaliation for Tuesday's Iranian missile attack.

Biden's off-the-cuff remark did not make clear whether his administration was holding internal discussions or speaking directly to Israel, nor did he provide any indication of his stance on such an attack.

“First of all, we don't 'allow' Israel, we advise Israel,” he told reporters outside the White House on Thursday. “And nothing will happen today.”

Still, the comment triggered a spike in global oil prices at a time of high tensions in the Middle East, with potentially damaging effects on his Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for the presidential election in just over a month.

U.S. and Israeli officials discussed Tuesday an appropriate Israeli response to an Iranian salvo of 181 ballistic missiles, most of which were intercepted although some landed on or near military bases. Satellite images released Thursday by the Associated Press showed damage from four separate impacts to buildings at Israel's Nevatim air base, one of the targets of the Iranian attack.

That attack was in turn a response to Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday, as what began as a war in Gaza a year ago exploded in recent days into a major regional conflict.

Biden said the U.S. and its Western allies in the G7 agreed that Israel had the right to respond “proportionately” and expressed opposition to any attack on Iran's nuclear program.

Asked by a reporter on Thursday about the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iranian oil facilities, Biden replied: “We are discussing it. I think that would be a bit…” – stopped mid-sentence. A few minutes later, oil prices hit their highest level in a month, with Brent crude rising as much as 5% to a high of $77.65 (£59.19) a barrel.

Any sustained price increase that would drive up gasoline prices at pumps across the U.S. — a near-certain outcome in the event of an actual Israeli attack on the Iranian oil industry — would hurt Harris in an extremely close presidential race with Donald Trump.

Iran has informed Washington that a large-scale Israeli attack will in turn lead to Iranian attacks on Israeli infrastructure. Tehran also warned that any other country supporting an Israeli attack would also make itself an Iranian target.

In a statement from the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, Iran said: “If a country provides assistance to the aggressor, it will be considered both an accomplice and a legitimate target.”

The warnings came as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian asked Gulf leaders at a summit in Doha for assurances that they would remain neutral in the event of a joint Israeli-American attack in Iran.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said: “We intend to close the book of disagreements with Iran forever and build relations between us like two friends.”

His comments underlined recent Saudi assurances that there would be no normalization agreement between Riyadh and Israel without Israel's consent to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Any Israeli attack on Iranian oil facilities would drive up global oil prices, potentially benefiting Gulf producers, but could also harm their ability to export oil if the Israeli-Iranian conflict led to a blockade of the Persian Gulf.

In a joint press conference with Pezeshkian, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said the crisis in the Middle East was a “collective genocide” and that his country had always warned of Israel's “impunity.”

“It has become crystal clear that what is happening is genocide, in addition to the transformation of the Gaza Strip into an area unsuitable for human habitation, in preparation for displacement,” he said during the Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit in Doha. The Qatari emir also reiterated his country's “full support” for Lebanon in the face of the “brutal attacks it is facing.”

On Thursday he wrote opposite

An Israeli airstrike in the early hours of Thursday morning killed nine people when it hit a medical center run by the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Organization. This was the second bomb attack on central Beirut so far this week.

The Israeli military said it killed Hezbollah commander Khader Shahabiya, who was blamed for the July bombing that killed 12 children and teenagers playing on a soccer field in the Golan Heights. Dozens more were injured in the same rocket attack.