Iran is reportedly preparing a revenge attack on Israel in the next two days after two Iranian generals were killed in a strike in Syria.
The country has publicly threatened to hit back at Israel over the attack last week in Damascus that Tehran said was an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic building.
A person briefed by the Iranian leadership told the Wall Street Journal that while plans to attack are being discussed no decision has been made.
An adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the outlet: ‘The strike plans are in front of the Supreme Leader and he is still weighing the political risk.’
Israel was widely blamed for an April 1 attack that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including the two generals.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech at a program held at the Imam Khomeini Khosseini Hosseini in Tehran, Iran on April 03, 2022
Israel was widely blamed for an April 1 attack that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards
Rescue workers search in the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy a day after an air strike in Damascus on April 2, 2024
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel ‘must be punished and will be punished’, days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are ‘no longer safe’.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that ‘if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran’.
Days after Israel strengthened its air defenses and paused leave for combat units, the United States also warned of the risk of an attack by Iran or its allied groups at a time when Middle East tensions have soared.
Iran is ‘threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel’, President Biden said on Wednesday, pledging ‘ironclad’ support for its top regional ally despite diplomatic tensions over Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla was in Israel on Thursday to discuss the situation with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon said.
‘We warned Iran,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing without elaborating.
The strike on Monday levelled a five-storey building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was one of those who died in the attack, having held a succession of commands in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force.
Iran warned arch foe Israel on April 2 that it will punish an air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals
The rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy is pictured a day after an air strike in Damascus on April 2, 2024
Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was killed in Israeli air strikes on the Syrian capital
The US embassy in Israel has since announced it was restricting the movements of its diplomats over security fears.
They said that ‘out of an abundance of caution’ staffers and their family could not undertake personal travel outside the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheeva areas ‘until further notice’.
During a visit to an airbase in central Israel, Netanyahu spoke of ‘challenging times’ on multiple fronts.
‘We are in the middle of the war in Gaza which continues in full force… but we are also preparing for scenarios of challenges from other arenas,’ he said in comments released by his office.
Iran enjoys a heavy advantage in terms of sheer manpower, boasting a collective active and reserve military of roughly 1.2 million troops as well as thousands upon thousands of artillery systems.
Israel meanwhile has around 750,000 active and military personnel at its disposal – but hundreds of thousands of these are already engaged in operations in and around Gaza, while others maintain a presence in the north to ward off border attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Though Israel is outnumbered, it is by no means outgunned – the IDF boasts more than 3,000 tanks in its ranks, roughly double the number thought to be in service in Iran.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged ‘maximum restraint’, and Lufthansa said it had extended a temporary suspension of Iran flights until Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said he had received phone calls Thursday from Baerbock as well as her British and n counterparts.
Regional tensions have been stoked by the Gaza war which began after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack against Israel left 1,170 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.