Biden refuses public negotiations on Israel’s position on Iranian oil sites By Reuters

By Andrea Shalal and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he would not negotiate in public when asked if he had asked Israel not to attack Iran’s oil facilities.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Israel weighed response options to Tehran’s ballistic missile attack on Tuesday. The US said at the time that it would work with Israel to ensure Iran faced serious consequences.

Earlier in the day, Biden helped send global oil prices higher when he said Washington was discussing strikes on Iran’s oil facilities. A US official later said Washington did not believe Israel had yet decided how to respond to Iran.

Biden said on Wednesday that the US does not support any Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

KEY QUOTE

“I don’t negotiate in public,” Biden told reporters when asked if he was telling Israel not to attack Iran’s oil facilities.

Asked if he was worried that an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities would raise the price of oil, he said; “If a hurricane hits, prices will go up. I don’t know; who knows.”

Biden was also asked why he had not spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days. He replied, “Because there is no action at this time.”

CONTEXT

During a year of cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 2,000 people in Lebanon, most of them in the past two weeks, and displaced more than 1.2 million people there. Israel this week began a ground incursion into Lebanon, saying its aim is to defeat Hezbollah and return some 60,000 evacuated Israelis to their homes in the north.

Israel is also waging a war in Gaza in which nearly 42,000 people have been killed and nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million population displaced. This followed a deadly October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militants Hamas.