Netanyahu agrees to limit strike on Iran, Washington Post reports

Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg News on Oct 14, 2024

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WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to limit his country’s retaliation against Iran over the missile attack on Oct. 1 to military targets, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Netanyahu has told the Biden administration that he would strike those types of targets rather than Iran’s oil infrastructure or nuclear installations, the Post reported, citing two officials familiar with the matter whom it didn’t identify.

The newspaper cited one of the officials as saying the retaliation for the Iranian missile barrage on Israel would be calibrated to avoid the perception that Israel was interfering in next month’s U.S. election.

Such a decision would be a relief for President Joe Biden, whose administration has urged Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear or energy sites for fear of escalating the conflict in the Middle East.

Oil dropped at the start of trading after the report was published. The White House on Monday evening referred questions on Netanyahu’s intentions to Israeli officials.

In a move that may have been aimed at persuading Israel not to strike at Iran’s oil sector, the U.S. Treasury Department last week sanctioned 17 ships and 10 entities that it said were tied to the “ghost fleet” of tankers maintaining the shipment of Iranian oil and petrochemicals, including to refineries in China.