US official warns potential for Israel-Hezbollah escalation is 'acute'

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf has reassured that there is a prospect for diplomatically resolving the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict, while warning that “the potential for escalation is acute.”

During a digital press briefing, Leaf added that the U.S. is “very much committed” to finding a diplomatic solution for the Lebanese-Israeli front.

“We’ve committed the energies and efforts of an envoy, Amos Hochstein. Is the window closing? I wouldn’t put it that way so much as that there has been a high degree of volatility on that border, a very disturbing degree of volatility on that border, and of course the communities on either side of that border have had to evacuate to decamp to other parts of Lebanon, other parts of Israel, out of harm’s way,” Leaf said.

Cautioning that “the potential for escalation is acute,” the U.S. official revealed that Washington has “of course cautioned Israel in terms of how it responds to attacks that Hezbollah initiated.”

“We have cautioned Israel to be careful in the way it responds, and we have certainly used a number of channels and we’ve been aided by other partners in using their channels, direct or indirect, to Hezbollah to warn against entering into the fray or widening the conflict,” Leaf added. 

“So yes, there’s absolutely a prospect for de-escalation of a more formal kind, and then ultimately moving to a diplomatic effort to delineate the border,” she said.

Responding to another question, Leaf described Hezbollah as “a terrible force that weighs against the government and the government’s own agency.”