Iran is preparing for an Israeli retaliatory attack on its territory or its territories. The US and European countries are pressuring Israel to choose a response that will prevent an escalation in tensions, which was caused by Tehran’s missile and drone attack this weekend.
Iran announced on Wednesday that it was preparing its air force for strikes, and that its navy would begin escorting Iranian commercial ships in the Red Sea. Tehran has also begun evacuating personnel from sites in Syria where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a large presence, Syrian and Iranian officials and advisers said.
The Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah have reduced the presence of their senior officers in Syria, while mid-ranking officers are relocating in the country, Syrian security officials said.
Israel has announced that it intends to respond, but officials say they will respond at a time of their choosing and in a responsible manner.
The Biden administration is urging Israel not to respond and instead to be content with the fact that a US-brokered alliance, which includes Israel and Arab countries, successfully repelled Iran’s attack on Saturday. This attack included more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
An anti-Israel sign showing Iranian missiles, Tehran / Photo: Reuters, Majid Asgaripour
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annale Barbrook visited Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reinforce the message of de-escalation.
In a speech to the government afterward, Netanyahu said that his answer to the diplomats was that “we will make our decisions, and the State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself.”
Israel will limit its attacks to facilities in Syria linked to Iran
How Israel responds has the potential to escalate Israel’s confrontation in Gaza with Tehran-backed Hamas into a wider regional war. This is an outcome that most parties seem eager to avoid, although there is growing concern that Israel and Iran may misinterpret each other’s intentions.
To encourage Israel to limit its response, the White House said Tuesday that it would impose a series of economic sanctions on Iran, including the Revolutionary Guards and its missile and UAV programs. Other sanctions may be directed at Iran’s oil industry and its ability to increase government revenue.
To signal that Israel is considering the message from the US and its allies, Israeli officials on Monday assured the Gulf states and other Arab states that Israel’s response to Iran’s attack would not endanger their security and would likely be limited in scope, the Wall Street Journal reported. Israel It will likely warn its Arab allies before reacting, and may limit its attacks to facilities in Syria linked to Iran, according to regional Arab officials.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards took emergency measures ahead of time for their facilities throughout Syria. Some members of the Revolutionary Guards have evacuated their bases in Syria and others do so at night, when there is a higher probability of Israeli attacks. Only a few soldiers stay behind to protect the weapons caches.
Facilities in Syria linked to Iran are seen by military experts as an option that would allow Israel to respond, but avoid a whirlwind exchange of blows, which would lead to a wider flare-up.
The scene of the assassination of Iranian General Hassan Mahdavi in Damascus / Photo: Reuters, Firas Makdesi
Hezbollah has increased the number of its fighters on the Syrian border with Israel
Tehran, at the same time, said it would respond to any Israeli action, signaling that it did not wish to continue its shadow war with Israel – which it fought mainly with its proxies – and would now intervene directly.
“The smallest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response against all its perpetrators,” said the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi.
Israel is already involved in almost daily exchanges of fire with Iran’s most powerful representative, the Lebanese military organization Hezbollah. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it launched airstrikes and killed two senior Hezbollah commanders and a lower-ranking operative who were involved in launching anti-tank rockets and missiles at Israeli territory. Hezbollah confirmed all three deaths.
In response, Hezbollah launched an attack on a city in northern Israel on Wednesday with drones and artillery, and according to the IDF injured 12 soldiers. The IDF responded with airstrikes in southern Lebanon.
It appears that the recent exchange of fire with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border is within the framework of the rules of engagement that the two sides unofficially established at the beginning of the war in Gaza, when Hezbollah began firing on Israeli territory, but avoided provoking a larger war. But even these two sides run the risk of miscalculation.
Hezbollah was on heightened alert during the Iranian attack over the weekend, anticipating a simultaneous Israeli retaliation that could target Hezbollah positions, according to a person familiar with Hezbollah’s operations. But the organization has now lowered its alert level, because Hezbollah expects that Israel will not harm it in Lebanon in response to Iran’s attack, the same person said.
Instead, Hezbollah accepted Iran’s advice to take precautions in Syria, because Israel could attack the Revolutionary Guard bases, warehouses and Hezbollah positions there, the same person added.
Syrian security officials said on Wednesday that Hezbollah has increased the number of its fighters on the Syrian border with Israel in recent days, in order to gather intelligence on possible Israeli attacks on its fighters and facilities.
Iran’s attack on Saturday was retaliation for what it said was an Israeli attack on a diplomatic building in Damascus that killed senior Iranian military officers. Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack in Damascus, saying the building was used for military purposes.
Iran’s nuclear program
Iran also moved to defend its nuclear program over the weekend. The head of the UN atomic agency, Raphael Grossi, told reporters on Monday that the Iranian facilities were closed over the weekend. They reopened on Monday. While in recent years Iran has limited the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring of sites related to its nuclear program, Inspectors now have permanent access to the country’s main enrichment facilities.
People familiar with Iran’s nuclear program say that Iran is keeping the fissile material enriched to 60%, near weapons grade, in easily transportable containers so that it can be transported if necessary. However, such an action will probably be discovered by IAEA personnel or by the cameras, and may cause a crisis. Iran has pledged to conduct itself transparently regarding its nuclear program.
European Union foreign ministers discussed new sanctions against Iran in a video call on Tuesday. The European bloc’s foreign policy chief, Joseph Borrell, said that Brussels will start working on new measures. It may take several weeks to approve them, diplomats said.
These measures would include sanctions on Iran for supplying missiles and drones to pro-Iranian militias in the Middle East, sanctions that France and Germany pushed for before Iran’s weekend attack. They would also pave the way for sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities, if it is proven that Tehran sent missiles to Russia for its war against Ukraine.
Some EU member states are also pushing to put Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps back on the bloc’s list of terrorist organizations, as the United States has done, a move that has previously been pushed back by legal and diplomatic obstacles. The European Union already sanctions the Revolutionary Guards because of the organization’s weapons development work. for mass destruction.
The IDF also continued to act against Hamas in Gaza in recent days, saying that it launched attacks against 40 targets throughout the Strip.
The activity in Gaza has slowed down in recent weeks, compared to the beginning of the war, because Israel was considering whether to launch a decisive operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip – more than a million Palestinians have come there to find shelter – and because Israeli officials have focused on Iran in recent days.
Israel said on Wednesday that its southern port in Ashdod was used for the first time to transfer aid entering Gaza. This is a route that the Israeli government said earlier this month would be opened to ease the humanitarian crisis, following pressure from the US.
President Biden said in a post on X Wednesday that 3,000 trucks have entered Gaza in the 12 days since he pressed Netanyahu in a phone call to increase aid. “It’s still not enough,” Biden wrote. “We continue to urge Israel to increase land, air and sea shipments.”
Hamas, in a statement on Wednesday, thanked Iran for the attack on Israel over the weekend and criticized Western countries for helping Israel repel the missiles and drones.
Benoit Faucon and Adam Hamsdin contributed to this article.
For your attention: The Globes system strives for a diverse, relevant and respectful discourse in accordance with the code of ethics that appears in the trust report according to which we operate. Expressions of violence, racism, incitement or any other inappropriate discourse are filtered out automatically and will not be published on the site.