U.S. officials in Washington and the Middle East said Friday they were preparing for possible Iranian retaliation for Monday’s Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria.
US military forces in the region have been placed on high alert, according to CNN.
Israel also put its military on high alert, according to an Israeli official, canceling licenses for combat units, recalling some reservists to air defense units and blocking GPS signals.
Iran vowed on Friday to avenge Israel’s killing of top commanders and other officers of its elite Quds Force at a public funeral for the dead, raising fears of open war, but did not say how it would retaliate or when.
At a funeral in Iran on Friday, IRGC Commander General Hossein Salami warned that Israel “cannot escape the consequences” of the killing of Iranian military officers, and gave no further indication of how or when Iran might take action. retaliation, reported Seyed Bathaei, correspondentl from CBS News.
To prevent Iranian retaliation against facilities connected to the United States, Biden administration officials have emphasized that The United States received no prior warning of the attack.
Senior US officials currently believe that an attack by Iran is “inevitable”, a view shared by their Israeli counterparts, an official told CNN.
The two governments are working frantically to position yourself for what is to comeas they anticipate that Iran’s attack could develop in different ways and that both US and Israeli assets and personnel in the region are at risk of being attacked.
An upcoming Iranian attack was a major topic of discussion in President Joe Biden’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
A direct attack on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios the Biden administration is preparing for, as it would ensure a rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East.
Such an attack could lead to The war between Israel and Hamas expands into a broader regional conflict, something Biden has long sought to avoid.
It has been two months since Iranian proxies attacked US forces in Iraq and Syria, a period of relative stability after months of drone, rocket and missile launches against US facilities.
The United States considers its own embassies and consulates abroad, as well as the embassies and consulates of foreign countries in the United States, to have special status. Yesaccording to the United States Department of State“an attack on an embassy is considered an attack on the country it represents.”
With information from CBS News, The New York Times and cnn
Keep reading:
– An attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria attributed to Israel leaves at least 5 dead
– How Iran’s elite Quds Force operates and what was the role of General Zahedi, killed in Damascus in an Israeli attack
– The US asks Panama to remove Panamanian flags from ships used by Iran due to suspicion of evasion of sanctions