An excavator clears rubble after a suspected Israeli strike on Monday on Iran's consulate, adjacent to the main Iranian embassy building, which Iran said had killed seven military personnel including two key figures in the Quds Force, in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 2.Firas Makdesi/Reuters
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed.
Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Mr. Biden said simply, “Don’t,” and he underscored Washington’s commitment to defend Israel.
“We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said.
Mr. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” He spoke to reporters at the White House after a virtual speech to a civil rights conference
Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for an attack on Iran’s embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s overseas Quds Force and six other officers.
Countries including India, France, Poland and Russia have warned their citizens against travel to the region, already on edge over the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month. Germany on Friday called on its citizens to leave Iran.
Israel did not claim responsibility for the air strike on April 1. But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished and shall be” for an operation he said was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.
Earlier, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the reportedly imminent attack by Iran on Israel was a real and viable threat, but gave no details about any possible timing.
Mr. Kirby said the United States was looking at its own force posture in the region in light of Tehran’s threat and was watching the situation very closely
Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not comment on reports that some Israeli diplomatic missions had been partially evacuated and security stepped up.
“The revenge will come,” wrote Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. “For the moment, the premise is that it will be very soon, in the next few days.”
“It’s going to be very difficult for Iran not to retaliate,” said Raz Zimmt, senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.
“I still believe that Iran doesn’t want to engage in full-scale, direct military confrontation against Israel, and certainly not with the United States. But it has to do something.”
On Friday, both Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and army chief General Herzi Halevi had meetings with the visiting head of U.S. Central Command General Michael Kurilla to co-ordinate a possible response.
Iranian sources and diplomats from the United States, Israel’s main protector, say Tehran has signalled to Washington that it wishes to avoid escalation and will not act hastily.
But the risk remains that any response might spin out of control.
Since Iran viewed the embassy attack as equivalent to an attack on its own territory, Mr. Zimmt said a direct attack on Israeli soil by Iran itself rather than a proxy such as Hezbollah in Lebanon was a real possibility.
Iran has missiles capable of hitting Israel directly and in recent weeks, Israel has bolstered its air defences, which have intercepted thousands of rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza and by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
The Israeli military has called back reservists in preparation for any escalation along its northern border, where it exchanges fire almost daily with Hezbollah.
Late on Friday, it said around 40 rocket launches were identified crossing into Israel from Lebanon, most of which were intercepted with the remainder falling on open ground without causing any injuries.
The army has pulled most of its troops and armoured vehicles out of Gaza. Ministers said the move was in advance of a long-promised assault on the city of Rafah, where thousands of Hamas fighters are believed to be dug in beside more than a million Palestinians displaced from other parts of Gaza.
In Israel, although there have been no formal security instructions, some parents said their children had been told to take books home for the Passover school holidays in preparation for possible lesson disruptions.