Israel's top commander says the country will respond to Iranian missile and drone attacks, but it remains unclear what form that response will take and what could lead to a worsening spiral of violence into a full-blown regional war. It remains unclear how powerful it will be.
U.S. officials said Monday that some kind of response to the Iranian attack, which used more than 300 missiles and drones, was all but inevitable, but the Biden administration said it remained a limited response and targeted Iranian territory. He said he hopes it won't be a problem.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Helzi Halevi gave the clearest confirmation yet since the attack that Israel would fight back.
“There will be a response to the launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles and drones into Israeli territory,” Halevi said from Nevatim Air Base in southern Israel, which was lightly damaged in the attack. Ta.
Israel's war cabinet met for the fourth time in the past two days on Monday afternoon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and former defense minister and centrist rival of Netanyahu Benny Gantz again discussing their plans. We talked about walking. Walking the tightrope between escalation and deterrence.
“We respect that it's a decision that a wartime cabinet, a prime minister, has to make. We know they live in a very tough area,” White House National Security Press said. Commissioner John Kirby told CNN on Monday. But he added that Joe Biden had also “made it clear that we do not want a war with Iran.” We are not trying to escalate this conflict. We don't want to see things escalate. ”
According to Israeli channel N12 news, the talks, which lasted several hours, discussed various options and ensured that Iran's actions crossed a line that should not be crossed without provoking an even bigger reaction, as Iran is threatening. It will show that.
N12 reported that Israel intends to coordinate the response with the United States, but the Biden administration has repeatedly said it will not join or support any Israeli counterattack. U.S. officials said Monday that the Israeli government has no intention of heeding Biden's advice to “seize victory” after shooting down the vast majority of missiles and drones incoming from Iran on Saturday night and Sunday morning. They seemed to have given up on the prospect of some kind of attack by Israel. response.
The IDF claims to have shot down 99% of drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles. However, it was later reported that much of the Iranian munitions either failed to launch or fell well short of their targets. In the end, only four Iranian missiles hit the Nevatim base and its surrounding area.
But the Biden administration has said that the counterattack would not physically target anything inside Iranian territory, but instead would take the form of a large-scale cyber attack or target Iranian military targets such as Iranian proxies or drones. I continued to hold out hope that it would become something. Manufacturing plants in third countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
Officials said another possibility was a covert attack on targets inside Iran, which Israel has not explicitly acknowledged but is widely known to have been carried out by Israeli special forces or intelligence services. He suggested that
Over the past few decades, there have been a number of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and explosions at sensitive military facilities that have been attributed to Israel, but no open attack on military facilities or infrastructure targets inside Iran. It warns that it will change the Iranian government's view. It is very likely that this will escalate further and lead to an all-out war.
Some hardliners in the Israeli security establishment may see this weekend's developments as an opportunity to go after Iran's nuclear facilities. Iranian engineers have come much closer to producing weapons-grade uranium since the collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal caused by Donald Trump's unilateral hardline policies. Withdrawal from the Agreement.
As with Saturday's attack on Israel, the number of casualties and damage caused by direct Israeli retaliation will likely determine Iran's next actions.
Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken contacted Israel's Arab neighbors on Sunday and Monday to reassure Washington's position, urging Netanyahu not to react to the Iranian attack, saying the U.S. He said he would not be involved in any counterattack. .
France, whose planes helped shoot down incoming Iranian munitions on Sunday, joined a chorus of foreign powers calling for Israeli restraint. President Emmanuel Macron told the BFM television news channel: “For several years now we have had an air base in Jordan to fight terrorism.” “Jordanian airspace was violated…We took off planes and intercepted what we were supposed to intercept.”
President Macron echoed Biden's position, saying that France would cooperate with Israel to strengthen its defense, but would not tolerate counterattacks on Iranian territory. “We will take all measures to avoid a major fire, an escalation of the situation,” the French president said. “We need to stand by Israel and ensure maximum protection, but we also need to seek restrictions to avoid escalation.”
He said the international community should focus on “isolating Iran, convincing regional countries that Iran is dangerous, tightening sanctions and increasing pressure on its nuclear activities.”
