It is very likely that the US “had a hand” in Israel’s operation in Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, assistant professor of public policy and international affairs at the American University of Beirut, told Sputnik.
“Certainly, there is good reason to believe that there has been diplomatic approval… military, most probably, and intelligence cooperation,” he said.
US interest in an operation targeting Nasrallah “might have to do with the protection of the role and power that Israel projects in the region,” the pundit speculated.
“It is no secret that Israel enjoys bipartisan support in the US Senate and Congress. It is also an important US ally, and carries out its dirty job in the region. It helps the US maintain economic, diplomatic, and political hegemony […] keeps the region in turmoil... It doesn’t allow for the unification of the region, doesn’t allow for the region to cooperate with each other… become a regional power that could endanger the interests of the US and the EU,” he underscored.
Kosmatopoulos pointed out that the military-industrial complexes of the US and Israel “are almost organically entwined, are an extension of each other.”
“These very strong interests explain the support that Israel receives from the US in all means – diplomatic, economic, military,” the expert noted.
Both US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris described the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday as a “measure of justice.” Harris added that "Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands."
Israel notified the US about the IDF’s airstrike on Beirut only after the planes were already in the air, a US official told The Times of Israel. A White House National Security Council spokesperson also claimed that the US had no advance knowledge of the operation in Beirut.
Iran condemned the Israeli attack, with President Masoud Pezeshkian alleging that the US greenlit the strike and bears partial responsibility for the "war crime."
"The international community will not forget that the order for this terrorist attack was issued from New York and the Americans cannot absolve themselves from collaborating with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote a letter to the heads of the United Nations and the Security Council on Saturday calling for an emergency meeting over the attack that killed Hezbollah's leader.
Israel killed Nasrallah, among others, "using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters,” he wrote. He warned Israel against attacking any of Iran's diplomatic premises or representatives, adding: “Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent rights under international law to take every measure in defense of its vital national and security interests.”
The escalation was preceded by a series of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies that rocked Lebanon from September 17-18, killing over 40 people and injuring nearly 3,500 others.
Biden administration officials are still examining the situation in Lebanon and the next potential steps as it is hard to predict possible retaliatory measures by Iran and Hezbollah following the killing of Nasrallah, US media reported on Sunday, citing White House sources. US officials are continuing to advise Israel against a ground invasion of Lebanon, one senior official was cited as saying.