US President Joe Biden on Friday said Israel ought not to strike Iran's oil infrastructure in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack, a day after his suggestion that it was a potential target sent crude prices surging.
"The Israelis have not concluded what they're going to do in terms of a strike - that's under discussion. If I were in their shoes, I'd be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields," Biden told reporters in the White House Briefing Room.
Biden added that the United States was in constant communication with Israeli counterparts and that Israel had yet to decide on a response, which he said was unlikely to be immediate due to the Jewish New Year holiday.
"I'm assuming, when they make their determination about how they're going to respond, we will then have a discussion ... our teams are in contact 12 hours a day".
Iran launched around 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said. The attack was largely repulsed with US and Western help but several missiles made landfall, including on an Israeli air base and near the Mossad intelligence headquarters.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday praised the missile salvo and said the Islamic Republic was prepared to repeat the assault should it be deemed necessary.
"The brilliant work of our forces just a few nights ago was also completely within their rights," Khamenei said in a hawkish sermon in Tehran with a rifle at his side.
"Any blow by any individual or group against this regime [Israel] is a service not only to the region but to all of humanity", he added.
The 85-year-old leader’s rare appearance at the Friday Prayers came amid a recent wave of assassinations of his key allies by Israel, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an air strike last week.
Israel last week invaded South Lebanon in what it said was a limited incursion aimed at rooting out the sources of rocket fire on its northern communities.
Several weeks of Israeli air strikes have killed over a 1,000 Lebanese - more than in the entire 34-day war Israel and Hezbollah last fought in 2006.
Hezbollah has vowed to keep fighting Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza in what it describes as a divinely-ordained fight against Israeli and American oppressors.
Biden said the US was coordinating with world leaders to tamp down the escalation but cited Iran's armed allies in the region as an obstacle.
"When you have proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis, it's a hard thing", he said, referring to the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen.
