US warns Iran it cannot hold back Israel if Tehran attacks again

In recent days, the United States has reportedly warned Iran against a new attack on Israel, explaining that it would not be able to restrain Israel in this case, the Axios news site reported on Saturday, citing a member of the American authorities and a former member of the Israeli authorities.

“We told the Iranians: we will not be able to restrain Israel or ensure that their action is calibrated and targeted like the previous one,” explained the member of the American authorities.

According to this same source and more precisely the member of the American authorities, the message would have been directly transmitted to the Iranians, even if the Israeli source speaks of a message transmitted to Tehran via Swiss intermediaries.

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Neither Washington nor Tehran reacted to this information, made public hours after Iran’s supreme leader threatened Israel and the United States with a “scathing response” to attacks against Iran and its allies.

The Iranian authorities are becoming more threatening every day, raising the specter of a new strike against Israel in response to the attack in Jerusalem on October 26 against the Islamic Republic, which targeted military bases and installations and which, according to Iran, left at least five dead.

These Israeli reprisals against Iranian military installations themselves followed the Iranian attack on October 1 during which Tehran fired 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, which caused a large part of the Israeli population to take refuge in shelters and secure rooms.

This attack caused relatively minor damage to military bases and some residential areas, not to mention the death of a Palestinian in the West Bank.

Any new attack from one or the other camp would be likely to drag down the entire Middle East, already damaged by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon, in an even wider regional conflict, just before the American presidential election next Tuesday.

Israeli public radio Kann reported Saturday that while U.S. officials had identified “movements” that showed Iran was preparing its response, there was no certainty yet about when or how it would take place. place.

According to the N12 channel, Israeli security services believe that Iran could prefer to act through its Shiite militias in Iraq or Yemen, rather than opting for a direct response, in order to limit the risk of a new Israeli attack on Iranian soil. According to this same source, the senior management of the security services would be ready for a firm response in the event of an attack, whatever the origin.

Separately, Arab media on Saturday published images of an Israeli navy missile ship having passed through the Suez Canal and now in the Red Sea, with an advanced launcher on board capable of firing the LORA missile from ‘Israel Aerospace Industries, with a range of 400 kilometers.

Added to this is the deployment of American forces in the region.

The American army is in fact present throughout the Middle East, and in particular in Israel, to operate the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is likely in the Arabian Sea, with Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder saying Friday that other destroyers, fighter squadrons, refueling tankers and B-52 bombers long-range aircraft would be sent as reinforcements to the region to deter Iran and its terrorist allies from acting.

U.S. Central Command said early Sunday that B-52 bombers had arrived in the region.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday threatened Israel and the United States with a “scathing response” to attacks on Iran and its allies.

“Enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, could face a scathing response for what they are doing to Iran, the Iranian nation and the resistance front ” Khamenei said in a video broadcast by Iranian state media.

Khamenei, who is 85, had taken a more cautious approach recently, saying that authorities were considering Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized.”

Iranian attempts to downplay this attack failed when satellite photos and information from around the world showed that the Israeli strikes had the effect of interrupting the production of ballistic missiles by destroying at least ten missile mixers. solid fuel, and disable crucial air defenses responsible for protecting key energy facilities.

Iran’s terrorist proxies, described as the “axis of resistance” by Tehran, have also been seriously affected by Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.

Iran has long used these groups both as an asymmetric means of attacking Israel and as a shield against direct attacks. Some analysts believe that these groups want Iran to support them more militarily.

Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza in response to the massacre of October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. And it has recently intensified its strikes against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets at Israel since the day after the Hamas attack. Israel has promised to push Hezbollah away from the border and allow tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis to return home to the north of the country.

Iran, which directly attacked Israel with missiles and drones in April, faces its own internal problems, with an economy stifled by international sanctions and a society gripped by widespread protests.

Iran has long threatened Israel with destruction and called for the Jewish state to be wiped out.

This Sunday is the 45th anniversary of the US embassy hostage crisis, according to the Persian calendar.

The attack on the embassy by Islamist students on November 4, 1979, caused a 444-day-long crisis, which reinforced an enmity between Tehran and Washington that has lasted for decades and still persists today.

AP contributed to this article.