IRAN or one of its proxies will launch an attack on Israel imminently, according to US intelligence.
Tehran has vowed to “punish” Israel with a revenge strike after several of its top commanders were killed in a blitz on its consulate in Syria.
AFPIran test-fires ballistic missile Ghadr during military exercises[/caption]
GettyIran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed to ‘punish’ Israel[/caption]
It has stoked fears of an all-out war breaking out in the Middle East as any attack would mark a huge escalation in the region.
US intelligence now signals a strike by Iran or one of its terror proxies could unleash an assault on Israel within the coming days, Bloomberg reports.
Officials claimed an attack by Iran was seen as a matter of if, not when.
German airline Lufthansa said it had suspended flights to Tehran amid rising tensions.
Meanwhile, foreign embassies have started evacuating staff in anticipation of an incoming strike.
Countries in the Middle East and the US have been on high alert and preparing for an attack by Iran since April 1 when suspected Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian embassy in the Syria capital Damascus.
General Mohammad Reza Zahedi died alongside six senior members of Iran’s twisted terrorist army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
President Netanyahu‘s war cabinet has been locked in crunch meetings over fears that Iran will launch an assault.
Experts told The Sun that retaliation by Iran itself rather than behind the cloak of one of its proxies could spark a global war.
Iran’s main proxy is terror group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded Israel an “evil regime” as he vowed to “punish” the country.
He said: “When they attack the consulate, it is as if they have attacked on our soil.
“The evil regime made a mistake and must be punished, and will be punished.”
Since the suspected Israeli bombing left at least 12 dead, Iran has been spewing increasingly potent verbal threats at its greatest foe.
Snarling Tehran President Ebrahim Rasi previously said Israel’s alleged blast “will not go unanswered”.
And thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to burn Israeli and US flags while screaming “death” to them both in a display of fury over the embassy airstrike.
But Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz has insisted Israel will attack Iran should it carry out strikes.
GettyJoe Biden has insisted America’s support for Israel is ‘ironclad’[/caption]
AlamyIranian protesters burn US and Israeli flags in Tehran[/caption]
He said: “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reassured Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant that the “US will stand with Israel against any threats by Iran and its proxies” in a call overnight.
The US is sending its top commander in charge of the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, to Israel today, according to Axios.
Kurilla, who is commander of the US Central Command, is due to meet with Gallant and senior Israel Defense Forces officials, it is reported.
Joe Biden also insisted American support for Israel is “ironclad” as he urged Irna not to strike.
He said: “As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel 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 security.”
The Sun’s Defence Editor’s analysis of the Middle East tinderbox
By Jerome Starkey, The Sun’s Defence Editor
FEARS that the Middle East could explode into all-out war are ratcheting up after Iran vowed vengeance for a deadly Israeli missile strike on its embassy in Damascus, the capital of Syria.
At least 11 people were killed when a consular annex was reduced to rubble by strikes which Iran says were carried out by Israeli F-35 fighter jets.
Now among those 11 killed were two top Iranian generals, Brigadier Mohammed Reza Zahidi, who we understand commanded Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, and Brigadier Mohammed Haji Rahimi.
Also among the dead is a representative of the Hezbollah terrorist group Hussein Yusuf.
Both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed vengeance, with Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi saying this strike will not go unanswered.
The suggestion is that perhaps Israel has crossed a threshold with a strike on an embassy.
Embassies are sovereign soil of the nations they belong to, so this was a strike on sovereign Iranian soil in Syria and in one sense it is an escalation and the concerns that this could spiral out are in many ways well founded.
Interestingly we’ve heard reports in the local media in Syria and in the region that America appears to be distancing itself from this strike, officials saying they had no advanced knowledge.
It would appear that the reason for this missile strike was the meeting between these Revolutionary Guard commanders and the representatives of Hezbollah.
We will now have to wait and see how Iran chooses to take its revenge.
Now of course, if you are an Israeli diplomat living abroad, then you may well think that you are now more of a target.
Because Israel has targeted an Iranian embassy, we may expect to see the possibility that Iran may target Israeli diplomats or missions around the world.
And we have just seen, in the last few days suspected Iranian agents attacking an Iranian journalist here in London.
Tehran is showing, perhaps by this stabbing that it maintains the ability and the capability to attack people it sees as critical of the regime enemies of the regime around the world.
Some context that we understand that Tehran employs criminal proxies to carry out that sort of dirty work doesn’t necessarily have the same sort of sophisticated overseas operations that we might expect of other hostile actors like Russia.
But nonetheless, I think in the wake of what happened in Damascus on Monday, combined with what’s been happening across the region in recent months, there is concern and anxiety to see how Iran responds and what that will elicit from Israel.
