Pentagon Chief restricts visits by senior defense leaders to 'Israel'
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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discourages congressional visits to "Israel" that require Pentagon participation.
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing to examine the national security supplemental request, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 31, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin restricted senior defense leaders from traveling to "Israel" until further notice amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and Palestinian Resistance rocket fire toward illegal Israeli settlements and occupied Palestinian cities as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
"I hereby restrict visits by DoD [the Department of Defense] senior leaders to Israel effective immediately and until further notice," the memorandum from October 31 and published on Friday read.
Austin also discouraged congressional visits to "Israel" that require Pentagon participation and directed an Assistant Secretary to inform the appropriate congressional leadership about that. He noted that such support can be provided only with his personal approval, according to the text of the memorandum.
At the same time, the Pentagon will continue to support any future visit by the President and Vice President of the United States, as well as by the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretaries of the Military Departments, or Service Chiefs.
It is noteworthy that the Palestinian Resistance has previously targeted Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied city of Lydd with rockets from the Gaza Strip multiple times.
This comes as Axis of Resistance parties have considered that the savage Israeli aggression on Gaza is US-backed and funded and that Washington is complicit in the massacres being committed against the Palestinian people, and therefore, putting American bases and personnel in the region at risk of attacks.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a number of rocket and drone attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria in response to US support for the Israeli aggression against Gaza. Its rockets have also reached vital sites for the Israeli occupation in "Eilat" and the shores of the Dead Sea.
It announced at dawn on Friday that it "will begin next week a new phase in confronting the enemies, in support of Palestine, and in revenge for the martyrs", stressing that it will be "tougher and broader against the enemy’s bases in the region."
The US set up its bases in Iraq following its invasion and occupation of the country in 2003. Although Washington has reduced its military presence in Iraq under the plight of the resistance, it still maintains tens of camps and two airbases in the country.
Amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Resistance in Iraq rose to the occasion and has been targeting US military bases in northeastern Syria and Iraq since October 13. The attacks come in opposition to the US-backed Israeli aggression on Gaza and in the context of expelling foreign forces from Iraq, which has suffered for more than 20 years from the US aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East.
Read more: US warships dispatched to Mideast hold drills amid Resistance warnings
