President Joe Biden said he would not support Israel's targeting Iran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for the ballistic missile barrage but sounded open on Thursday to striking the country's oil reserves.
Asked by reporters about whether he would back Israel if it bombed Iran's nuclear sites, Biden said, "The answer is no."
"And I think there's things — we'll be discussing with the Israelis what they're going to do, but they all seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond in proportion," the president said on Wednesday, referring to the leaders of the Group of Seven.
The association of seven industrialized democracies - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - called an urgent meeting on Wednesday to condemn the attack on Israel and to consider sanctioning Iran.
Biden, pressed on Israel's response again on Thursday, suggested he was open to Israel striking Iran's oil reserves.
"We're in discussions of that" but "there's nothing going to happen today; we'll talk about that later," he told reporters as he left the White House to survey damage from Hurricane Helene in Florida and Georgia, CNN reported.
He also said that he didn't expect Israel to react immediately.
"First of all, we don't 'allow' Israel, we advise Israel," Biden said.
Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles into Israel on Tuesday, but Israel's air defense systems intercepted most of the rockets, while a few landed in central and southern Israel.
Two Israelis were wounded by shrapnel and a Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank.
After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate forcefully, saying Iran "made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it."
Iran launched the missile barrage in retaliation for Israel's killing of a top leader of Iranian-backed Hezbollah last week in Beirut, Lebanon.
