'Everyone loses' in a regional war, Pentagon warns

On our new ‘The Interview: With Willy Lowry’ show, US Department of Defence press secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder says Washington holds out hope for a ‘diplomatic resolution’

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As Israel ratchets up pressure on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US is wary of the potential for a disastrous regional war in which everyone loses, the Pentagon has warned.

Israel is presumed to have been behind two deadly attacks carried out in Lebanon this week, aimed at Hezbollah members across the country by exploding thousands of their pagers on Tuesday, then detonating walkie talkies the following day. On Friday, Israel killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in a strike on a Beirut suburb.

Ahead of the latest attacks, Israel declared that it wants its citizens to return to the north of the country, and the only way to ensure this was through force.

“We fully understand Israel's concerns about returning residents to their homes in northern Israel,” Pentagon Press Secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said in The Interview: With Willy Lowry show.

“We've been making a full-court press effort to try to help resolve these issues through dialogue. That said, we do remain concerned about the potential for escalation and for a wider regional conflict.”

But Israel appears to have abandoned diplomatic efforts to achieve a resolution along its northern border, where it has been engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah since October 8 – the day after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

“We've been very clear to Israel and others from the very beginning that we don't want to see a wider regional conflict; no one benefits from that. Everyone loses,” Maj Gen Ryder said.

Soon after the conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government ordered the evacuation of 60,000 people from their homes close to the Israel-Lebanon border.

Washington has pushed for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis and President Joe Biden has sent his special envoy Amos Hochstein several times in a bid to calm tensions, including earlier this week.

“We've really worked hard to advocate for a diplomatic resolution to those tensions,” Maj Gen Ryder said.