WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Monday sought to distance itself from the latest bout of Israeli airstrikes against Iran, as the Biden administration seeks to put a cap on the fighting in order to pivot back to diplomacy to avert a wider war. 

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh on Monday denied that the US military had participated in the strikes against Iranian military targets last Saturday morning local time, which marked the latest wave of retaliation between the two regional heavyweights stemming from the war in Gaza.

“There was no US military role in Israel’s operation,” Singh told a group of journalists at the Pentagon.

But Singh declined to say whether the United States had provided any relevant intelligence to the Israeli government in their close coordination leading up to the strikes. Dozens of Israeli warplanes participated in the operation, ending several weeks of speculation over how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would respond to Iran’s largely thwarted ballistic missile attack targeting Israeli military sites on Oct. 1.