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Biden on How Israel Should Respond to Iranian Attack: ‘That’s Between Me and Them’

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – When asked for his opinion on how Israel should respond to the latest Iranian missile strike, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that it was between him and the Israelis.
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"That's between me and them," Biden told reporters.
Israel has not yet determined how it will strike Iran but they should consider other options than targeting oil fields, President Biden noted.
"The Israelis have not concluded ... what they're going to do in terms of the strike, that's under discussion," he said during the press briefing. "If I were in those shoes, I'd be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields."
Biden also elaborated that the United States is considering imposing sanctions on Iran "right now", including on the country’s oil sector.
"That's under consideration right now, the whole thing," he elaborated, adding that he will not discuss the issue further at present.
POTUS also noted that he does not know whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to influence the presidential election in the United States, adding that he is “not counting on that.”
Whether he's trying to influence the election, I don't know, but I'm not counting on that,” he told reporters during his first visit to the White House press briefing room.
According to US media reports, Democrats, and in particular Senator Chris Murphy, have expressed their concerns that Netanyahu, with his harsh actions in the Middle East, is playing into the hands of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as this gives the latter the opportunity to accuse Biden of failing to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.
“I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north end of Gaza. I hope this is not true, but it is certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the American election, as a means potentially to try to influence the result,” CNN quoted Murphy as saying in an interview for CNN.
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