Biden envoy Amos Hochstein last week warned Lebanese officials that the US will not be able to stop Israel from invading Lebanon if Hezbollah continues to escalate its attacks, Axios reported.

Hochstein visited Beirut last week after his visit to Israel and met with Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the commander of the Lebanese military Gen. Joseph Aoun and other officials.

According to the report, during his meeting with Berri, Hochstein asked him to convey a message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that “his assumption that the U.S. controls Israel is wrong.”

According to a Western diplomat, Hezbollah later sent a message to the US saying that although it doesn’t want a war, the terror organization is confident is can significantly harm Israel if it invades Lebanon.

Politico reported on Monday that “there’s a growing sense in Washington and beyond that escalation between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable.”

Israel’s gotta do what they gotta do,” a Defense Department official said.

Senior Biden administration officials told senior Israeli officials last week that the US would fully back Israel if a full-scale war breaks out between Israel and Lebanon but won’t deploy US troops on the ground.

On the other hand Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday that the U.S. won’t likely be able to help Israel defend itself against a broader Hezbollah war as well as it helped Israel fight off an Iranian barrage of missiles and drones in April.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)