The U.S. and the United Kingdom urged their citizens over the weekend to get out of Lebanon amid growing signs that a long-feared full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah may be imminent, and as fears mounted Sunday that the entire region could soon be engulfed by the kind of violent escalation Washington has desperately tried to prevent, writes The Washington Times.

The blunt warnings from American and British officials served as a public recognition by leading Western powers that the situation across the Middle East is at its most dangerous inflection point since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

In Washington, Biden administration officials still insisted that preventing escalation in the Middle East is a key priority, even as such escalation appears to already be happening now. White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told “Fox News Sunday” that the U.S. still believes it’s possible to prevent a broader war, though he also stressed that America will stand by Israel.

“Look, when the supreme leader [of Iran] says he’s going to avenge, we have to take that seriously.

Now I don’t know what they’re going to do or when they’re going to do it, but we got to make darn sure that we’re ready and that we have the capabilities in the region to be able to help Israel defend itself and quite frankly defend our own people, our own facilities, our own national security interest”, - said Mr. Kirby.