The United States wants to strengthen its defensive military capabilities in the Middle East to protect its troops there and its ally Israel, the Pentagon said late Friday amid rising tensions in the region.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will take several measures designed to protect US troops in the region, provide Israel with more support and make the United States ready to respond to this developing crisis, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
She did not give further details, but said that it could be defensive military capabilities.
The President of the United States Joseph Biden said on Friday that he is very concerned about the situation in the Middle East and at the same time called on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to quickly reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.
In a phone call earlier Friday in the presence of US Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden assured Netanyahu that the United States is committed to Israel's security against all threats from Iran.
Iran and its allied groups are preparing a response to Wednesday's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Hani, which the Palestinian Islamist group, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Tehran have blamed on Israel.
His death occurred a day after the Israeli attack in which the military leader of Hezbollah, Fuad Shokur, was killed, near Beirut.
The two attacks are reviving fears of the war spreading to the entire Middle East, between Israel on the one hand and Iran and groups supporting it in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen on the other.
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