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Top US General Says Risk of Broader War Eases a Bit after Israel-Hezbollah Exchange

US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
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Top US General Says Risk of Broader War Eases a Bit after Israel-Hezbollah Exchange

US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
US General Charles Q. Brown Junior looks on during a media statement at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, March 19, 2024. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo

The near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased somewhat after Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah exchanged fire without further escalation but Iran still poses a significant danger as it weighs a strike on Israel, America's top general said on Monday.
Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to Reuters after emerging from a three-day trip to the Middle East that saw him fly into Israel just hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, and Israel's military struck Lebanon to thwart a larger attack.
It was one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare, but it also ended with limited damage in Israel and without immediate threats of more retaliation from either side.
Brown noted Hezbollah's strike was just one of two major threatened attacks against Israel that emerged in recent weeks. Iran is also threatening an attack over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran last month.
Asked if the immediate risk of a regional war had declined, Brown said: "Somewhat, yes."
"You had two things you knew were going to happen. One's already happened. Now it depends on how the second is going to play out," Brown said while flying out of Israel.
"How Iran responds will dictate how Israel responds, which will dictate whether there is going to be a broader conflict or not."
Brown also cautioned that there was also the risk posed by Iran's militant allies in places such as Iraq, Syria and Jordan who have attacked US troops as well as Yemen's Houthis, who have targeted Red Sea shipping and even fired drones at Israel.
"And do these others actually go off and do things on their own because they're not satisfied - the Houthis in particular," Brown said, calling the group the "wild card."
Iran has vowed a severe response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which took place as he visited Tehran late last month and which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
Brown said the US military was better positioned to aid in the defense of Israel, and its own forces in the Middle East, than it was on April 13, when Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, unleashing hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
Still, Israel, the US and other allies managed to destroy almost all of the weapons before they reached their targets.
"We're better postured," Brown said. He noted Sunday's decision to maintain two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, as well as extra squadron of F-22 fighter jets.
"We try to improve upon what we did in April."
Brown said whatever plans Iran's military might have, it would be up to Iran's political leaders to make a decision.
"They want to do something that sends a message but they also, I think ... don't want to do something that's going to create a broader conflict."
STRUGGLING WITH GAZA FALLOUT
US President Joe Biden's administration has been seeking to limit the fallout from the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, now in its 11th month. The conflict has leveled huge swathes of Gaza, triggered border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and drawn in Yemen's Houthis.
Brown traveled on Monday to the Israeli military's Northern Command, where he was briefed on the threats along Israel's borders with Lebanon and Syria. In Tel Aviv, he met Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and its Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi.
Asked about Lebanese Hezbollah's military might, particularly after the strikes by Israel, Brown cautioned "they still have capability."
The current war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel's military campaign has driven nearly all of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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Biden Pushed Gaza Pier Over Warnings it Would Undercut Other Aid Routes, Watchdog Says 

The image provided by US Central Command, shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP, File)
The image provided by US Central Command, shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP, File)
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Biden Pushed Gaza Pier Over Warnings it Would Undercut Other Aid Routes, Watchdog Says 

The image provided by US Central Command, shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP, File)
The image provided by US Central Command, shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on May 16, 2024. (US Central Command via AP, File)

President Joe Biden ordered the construction of a temporary pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza earlier this year even as some staffers for the US Agency for International Development expressed concerns that the effort would be difficult to pull off and undercut the effort to persuade Israel to open “more efficient” land crossings to get food into the territory, according to a USAID inspector general report published Tuesday.

Biden announced plans to use the temporary pier in his State of the Union address in March to hasten the delivery of aid to the Palestinian territory besieged by war between Israel and Hamas.

But the $230 million military-run project known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system, or JLOTS, would only operate for about 20 days. Aid groups pulled out of the project by July, ending a mission plagued by repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other emergency supplies could get to starving Palestinians.

“Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns that the focus on using JLOTS would detract from the Agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza,” according to the inspector general report. “However, once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use JLOTS as effectively as possible.”

At the time Biden announced plans for the floating pier, the United Nations was reporting virtually all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were struggling to find food and more than a half-million were facing starvation.

The Biden administration set a goal of the US sea route and pier providing food to feed 1.5 million of Gaza's people for 90 days. It fell short, bringing in enough to feed about 450,000 people for a month before shutting down.

High waves and bad weather repeatedly damaged the pier, and the UN World Food Program ended cooperation with the project after an Israeli rescue operation used an area nearby to whisk away hostages, raising concerns about whether its workers would be seen as neutral and independent in the conflict.

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Tuesday that the project “had a real impact” of getting food to hungry Palestinian civilians despite the obstacles.

“The bottom line is that given how dire the humanitarian situation in Gaza is, the United States has left no stone unturned in our efforts to get more aid in, and the pier played a key role at a critical time in advancing that goal,” Savett said in a statement.

The watchdog report also alleged the United States had failed to honor commitments it had made with the World Food Program to get the UN agency to agree to take part in distributing supplies from the pier into Palestinian hands.

The US agreed to conditions set by the WFP, including that the pier would be placed in north Gaza, where the need for aid was greatest, and that a UN member nation would provide security for the pier. That step was meant to safeguard WFP's neutrality among Gaza's warring parties, the watchdog report said.

Instead, however, the Pentagon placed the pier in central Gaza. WFP staffers told the USAID watchdog that it was their understanding the US military chose that location because it allowed better security for the pier and the military itself.

Israel's military ultimately provided the security after the US military was unable to find a neutral country willing to do the job, the watchdog report said.

A US official said the USAID staffer concerns about the project undercutting overall aid efforts were raised early in the process. USAID responded by adding enough staffing for the agency to address both the pier and the land routes simultaneously, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.