Israel Said She is Weighing How and How Iran would Respond
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported Saturday that while US authorities have identified “initial movements” that indicate Iran is weighing how to respond, there aren’t yet clear indications regarding when or how it will happen.
Channel 12 news reported, meanwhile, that Israel’s security establishment was estimating that Iran could choose to act via its Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen, rather than responding directly, in an attempt to lower the risk of another Israeli attack on Iranian soil. The outlet said senior security officials were threatening to respond strongly to any attack regardless of where it originates.
Meanwhile, Arab media outlets published footage Saturday indicating that an Israeli Navy missile boat had crossed the Suez Canal and was now in the Red Sea carrying an advanced launcher capable of firing the advanced LORA missile, which was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and has a 400-kilometer range.
This is in addition to US deployment in the region.
The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier likely is in the Arabian Sea, while Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers would be coming to the region to deter Iran and its terror allies.
The US Central Command said early Sunday that the B-52 bomber had arrived in the region.
Earlier Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.
The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.”
But efforts by Iran to downplay the attack faltered as satellite photos and multiple reports in global media showed Israel’s strikes had crippled Iran’s ballistic missile production by destroying at least a dozen solid fuel mixers, and disabled crucial air defenses protecting major energy installations.
Iran’s terror proxies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran has long used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.
Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza after the October 7, 2023, massacre that killed some 1,200 people and resulted in 251 being kidnapped as hostages. And it recently stepped up strikes on Hezbollah, which began launching rockets at Israel a day after the Hamas onslaught. Israel has vowed to push Hezbollah away from the border and allow tens of thousands of evacuees to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Iran, which directly attacked Israel with missiles and drones for the first time in April, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests.
Iran has long threatened Israel with destruction and called to wipe out the Jewish state.
On Sunday, Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the US Embassy hostage crisis, following the Persian calendar. The November 4, 1979, storming of the embassy by Islamist students led to the 444-day crisis, which cemented the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that persists today.
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