U.S. assesses Israel's potential ground incursion into Lebanon not imminent

The United States doesn't see a potential ground incursion into Lebanon by Israel as something "imminent," a spokesperson for the U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday, reiterating ongoing U.S. effort to seek a diplomatic solution to de-escalate the tensions, reported Xinhua.

"It doesn't look like something is imminent," Sabrina Singh told a press conference at the Pentagon, adding she will let the Israelis "speak to their own operations."

Singh reiterated the U.S. stance, which White House officials had been stressing in the past few days, that there's still time and space for diplomacy. "We want to see a diplomatic resolution and a solution to prevent an all-out war," she said.

The spokesperson's remarks came amid Israel's intensifying offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and hours after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it is preparing for a ground operation in Lebanon to return Israeli residents to their homeland in northern Israel.

"To achieve that, we are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory," Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff of the IDF, said Wednesday.