“Today, we met with the President in the Oval Office together with Secretary Austin again to just review our military deployments, which are ongoing and quite significant and substantial,” the senior administration official said on Thursday.
The Pentagon has said that Austin is leading efforts to bolster US forces in the region amid concerns about a potential Iranian attack on Israel.
The senior official further commented that the consequences of a potential Iranian attack on Israel "could be quite significant, including for Iran."
Earlier Thursday, US Central Command said that additional F-22 Raptor jets had arrived in the Middle East to counter "threats" posed by Iran.
Weighing in on stalled peace talks, the official noted that while an immediate ceasefire deal is not anticipated, negotiations between the US and its partners are expected to resume in the coming days in Doha or Cairo. "I think we'll likely begin preparatory talks to really kind of build up to that probably here fairly soon," the official said.
The official also indicated there are about four or five tough issues Israel and Hamas need to work out, but that the US is confident they can be resolved with the assistance of all the parties involved.
Earlier, the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and the US in a joint statement urged Israel and Hamas to resume ceasefire talks on August 14 or 15 in Doha or Cairo.