Officials close to US President Joe Biden are concerned that Israel is planning to launch a ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the coming months, US media reported Thursday.
According to the CNN report, the Biden administration has held intelligence briefings on the matter, preparing for the possibility that the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group cannot be made to retreat from the border through diplomatic measures.
Speaking to the network on the condition of anonymity, one senior official said that the Biden administration was “operating in the assumption” that a ground operation would occur in the coming months.
The official added that it does not expect an operation to be imminent “in the next few weeks” but “perhaps later this spring.”
“An Israeli military operation is a distinct possibility,” the official stated.
A US intelligence official said Washington feared deepening strikes in Lebanon will “grow to an expansive air campaign reaching much further north into populated areas of Lebanon and eventually grow to a ground component as well.”
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