The United States sees the prospect of a significant escalation in attacks on its troops in the Middle East and of Iran seeking to widen the Israel-Hamas war, the top U.S. diplomat and defense officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. did not want to see the conflict spread and that recent U.S. deployments to the region were designed to prevent this.
Blinken said there needed to be a way to ensure Hamas could not again conduct an attack like its rampage on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, in which it took about 200 hostages, but one that did not entail Israel resuming governance of Gaza.
"They're different ideas out there about what could follow. But all of that I think needs to be worked and it's something that needs to be worked even as Israel is dealing with the current threat," he added.
Washington has sent significant naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines.
