White House: Hezbollah 'rejected all off-ramps' from war

The Biden administration said it does not want to see what happened in Gaza happen in Lebanon, in response to comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warning of such a scenario. 

It's Hezbollah that has "rejected all off ramps to this conflict," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. 

"The suffering we are seeing in Lebanon could have been avoided if Hezbollah would have stopped its rocket attacks on Israel," she said. 

When pressed on exactly who the US is talking to about a ceasefire deal considering Israel's rejection of it and Hezbollah's now-assassinated senior leadership, Jean-Pierre only said that "those conversations have been continuing for some time now" and that "we need a diplomatic resolution".

US President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu for thirty minutes earlier on Wednesday, in their first phone call since August. Jean-Pierre described the discussion as "honest" and "productive".

Last week, Politico - citing anonymous official sources - reported that the US had encouraged Israel to mount attacks on south Lebanon, despite Washington's public assertions to the contrary.