White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said in a Sunday interview that the “State Department does not feel a need for” American evacuations from Israel and Lebanon.
“And if the situation does escalate, we certainly hope it does not, are you absolutely certain we are prepared to get Americans out of Lebanon … or even Israel? Completely prepared?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked Kirby on ABC’s “This Week”
“I know, I hate to look back on this, but Afghanistan, no preparation. I know it’s very different. But are you confident you could do it this [time]?” she continued.
“We have contingency plans for evacuations in just about every corner of the world, Martha, and we are — everything that we are doing, everything that Secretary [Lloyd] Austin is doing at the Defense Department is to make sure we have the requisite capability and the planning and preparation capability available to us,” Kirby responded.
“So, we are working our way through that,” Kirby continued. “I would add that right now, the State Department does not feel a need for that. That — that there are still commercial operations, commercial air traffic that is getting out of Beirut and are still available to those Americans that want to leave.”
Kirby’s comments come amid rising tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been killed in a Friday strike by the Israelis.
“We again urge Americans, if you’re in Lebanon and you want to go, go now while these options are available to you,” Kirby said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down a temporary cease-fire proposal with Hezbollah that was offered by the U.S. and multiple allies this week. Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday the prime minister hadn’t “even responded to” the proposal and that “the purported directive to ease up on the fighting in the north is the opposite of the truth.”