US President Joe Biden on Wednesday vowed that American support for Israel is ‘ironclad’ amid fears Iran will soon attack the Middle Eastern nation.
‘As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. Let me say it again: ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,’ Biden said at a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Biden’s top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, affirmed his words and told Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant on a phone call that the US would stand behind Israel if Iran decides to attack.
An attack by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel is imminent, Bloomberg News reported, citing intelligence sources, with one source saying it is more a matter of when, not if.
Today, tensions in the Middle East flared after an Iranian news agency published a report on X saying all airspace over Tehran had been closed for military drills before quickly removing the post and denying it had ever issued the news.
But Iran has promised to retaliate for an Israeli strike in Syria on April 1st that killed several senior Iranian commanders when Israeli forces hit the Iranian Embassy building in Damascus.
The airstrike killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Israel ‘must be punished and it shall be’ for the strikes on the embassy. He noted in a speech Wednesday for Eid al-Fitr that attacking an embassy ‘means that they have attacked our soil.’
‘The evil regime made a mistake, and it should be punished and will be punished,’ he added, according to IRNA, the state news agency.
Iran’s main proxy group is Hezbollah, which is based in southern Lebanon and has been trading fire with Israeli forces almost daily since the war in Gaza erupted in October.
Meanwhile, A direct attack on Israel from Iran is expected imminently, according to a report.
The attack could come within the next 24 to 48 hours and target southern or northern parts of the Jewish state, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the matter.
However, a person briefed by leaders of the Iranian regime noted that no final decision has been made about attack plans, though they have been discussed, the outlet said.
“The strike plans are in front of the Supreme Leader, and he is still weighing the political risk,” an adviser to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. Tehran has vowed revenge against Israel over an airstrike last week in Syria that targeted an Iranian diplomatic complex in the capital city, Damascus.
Senior US officials indicated last week that Iranian retaliation against Israeli or American assets in the Middle East is expected and believed to be imminent.
But US intelligence now points to Iran being focused on a retaliatory strike “possibly on Israeli soil” rather than US or Israeli interests elsewhere in the Middle East, according to the Journal.
The US Embassy in Israel issued a security alert Thursday, warning employees and their family members not to travel outside central areas of the country.
“Out of an abundance of caution, US government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” the embassy said. “US government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.”
