White House pressed on rising Middle East tensions

The White House appeared hesitant to directly address questions about escalating tensions between Iran, Israel, and other Middle East players Tuesday.

Iran and its proxy group, Hezbollah, have vowed retaliatory attacks and even a potential ground invasion of Israel after the neighboring country killed the political leader of Hamas in Iran last week.

In the subsequent days, President Joe Biden spoke with allies, mobilized U.S. military assets to the Middle East, and convened his national security advisers in the White House situation room.

However, Biden, who has been keeping a low public profile in efforts to let Vice President Kamala Harris take center stage as the 2024 Democratic nominee, has yet to deliver nationally televised remarks on Iran’s telegraphed threats.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby did not attend Tuesday’s scheduled press briefing Tuesday to update reporters on the latest developments.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in turn, faced numerous questions on the topic. Jean-Pierre voiced cautious optimism that Biden’s posturing could block Iran from expanding the conflict in the region.

“We’re monitoring the situation closely. We want to make sure that we get to continue to have those de-escalation conversations,” she told reporters. “It is certainly the president’s priority to make sure that we do everything that we can to protect our national security, right? To make sure we have to do everything that we can to work with our partners, and de-escalating the tensions in the Middle East is certainly something that we want to make sure that we continue to do.”

Still, Jean-Pierre could not definitively say if Biden’s regional diplomacy was yielding positive progress.

“Look, since the beginning of this conflict, we have worked to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, and manage risk in the region. That’s what we have done,” she continued. “That’s going to be our focus. It’s not just the president and the vice president. It’s also Secretary Blinken. It’s his team that are having these conversations as well.”

Later in the briefing, Jean-Pierre declined to comment on any direct communication between Washington and Tehran, Iran, but reiterated that de-escalation conversations “are going to continue.”

You can watch Tuesday’s briefing in full below.