Biden hopes Iran will stand down amid tense week in Mid­dle East

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden said Sat­ur­day that he hopes Iran will stand down after a chaot­ic week in the Mid­dle East.
As he was leav­ing a local gro­cery store in Wilm­ing­ton, Delaware, Biden field­ed one ques­tion from a reporter across the street on his way to his lim­ou­sine.
“I hope so,” Biden said when asked if he thinks Iran will stand down. “I don’t know.”

Ear­li­er in the week, Israel con­duct­ed airstrikes in Beirut and Tehran, Iran, killing senior lead­ers of Hezbol­lah and Hamas, respec­tive­ly. Both groups are Iran­ian prox­ies, and on Wednes­day, Iran­ian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered a direct strike on Israel. While that has not come to fruition, the threat of retal­i­a­tion remains.
On Thurs­day, Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu and “reaf­firmed his com­mit­ment to Israel’s secu­ri­ty against all threats f …