The Middle East has “fundamentally transformed” amid the conflict, says the outgoing US president
Outgoing US President Joe Biden has praised Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the wider Middle East as “extremely successful,” asserting that the region has “fundamentally transformed,” with Iran purportedly becoming its “weakest in decades.”
Biden made these remarks during a visit to South Carolina on his last full day in office on Sunday, welcoming the ceasefire reached between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“After so much pain, death, and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent,” he said, commending the Israeli campaigns against Hamas and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group as “extremely successful.”
Hamas lost its top leadership while its “sponsors in the Middle East have been badly weakened by Israel, backed by the US,” the president noted. He added that Hezbollah’s leaders were “destroyed” and the group was “significantly weakened.”
Biden also referred to the downfall of the Bashar Assad government in Syria, which was toppled by a surprise jihadist offensive late last year, suggesting this development played into Israel’s and Washington’s favor.
“The Assad regime next door in Syria is gone, removing Iran’s ready access to Lebanon. Iran is in its weakest position in decades,” he stated.
Biden took pride in Washington’s enduring support for West Jerusalem and its military endeavors, claiming that this support prevented a larger war in the Middle East.
“I concluded that abandoning the course I was on would not have led us to the ceasefire we’re witnessing today. Instead, it would have risked the wider war in the region that many feared. Now the region has been fundamentally transformed,” he remarked.
Biden’s comments coincided with the long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on Sunday. The two sides reached the agreement earlier that week, agreeing to halt the conflict that had persisted for approximately 15 months and to exchange prisoners.
Hostilities between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave flared up when the militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. The military retaliation by Israel has caused massive destructio and claimed more than 46,000 lives in the enclave, according to Gaza health officials. This escalation also prompted a new conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and led to several exchanges of long-range strikes between West Jerusalem and Tehran.
