U.S. officials say Iran appears to be lining up a series of potential retaliations against Israel.
The U.S. and its allies are sounding an unusually urgent alarm over Iran’s possible plans to retaliate in the coming days over Israel’s purported killing of senior Iranian officials at a diplomatic mission in Syria.
An Iranian action, it is feared, would likely provoke an Israeli response, which could ratchet up violence in the region.
U.S. officials said this week that Iran appears to be lining up a series of potential retaliations, including direct attacks on Israeli assets — within Israel territory or at diplomatic missions, or operations carried out by proxy groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon on Israel’s northern border, and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
“Iran is threatening to launch a major attack on Israel,” President Biden said Thursday. “Our commitment to Israel’s security in the face of these threats from Iran and its allies is unwavering.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed similar thoughts. “Threats by Iran are inadmissible,” he said.
The trigger for the latest Israel-Iran standoff is the April 1 bombing of an Iranian building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, in which seven high-ranking Iranian military officers from the Islamic Republican Guard were killed. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
