Israel and Iran traded threats after Tehran’s first-ever direct attack on its arch foe sharply heightened Middle East tensions and as the Gaza war ground on with no truce in sight.
Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi on Monday vowed “a response” after Iran and its allies launched a barrage of more than 300 missiles, drones and rockets at Israel at the weekend.
Iran said its large-scale attack was an act of self-defense following a deadly Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Syria, and that it would consider the matter “concluded” unless Israel retaliated.
Photo: AP
However, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also warned that “the slightest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response.”
US President Joe Biden said that “the United States is committed to Israel’s security,” but also that he wants to prevent the conflict from spreading.
World leaders have urged restraint since Iran’s attack on Israel, which has sparked a flurry of crisis diplomacy and sent up oil prices while depressing stock markets.
As the war raged on in Gaza, Biden said: “We’re committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict from spreading beyond what it already has.”
Israel kept its bombing of targets in Gaza, which has been largely devastated by more than six months of war and a siege on its 2.4 million people.
Since the Iranian attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has twice convened his war Cabinet.
It remained unclear when Israel might strike and whether it would target Iran directly or attack its interests or allies abroad, including in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
In Iran, nuclear facilities were temporarily closed over “security considerations,” International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said.
Netanyahu wrote on X that “the international community must continue to stand united in resisting this Iranian aggression, which threatens world peace.”
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz said he had launched a diplomatic offensive against Iran by writing to 32 governments and speaking with dozens of politicians.
His message was a call “for sanctions to be imposed on the Iranian missile project and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be declared a terrorist organization,” he wrote on X.
On Monday, Israel made its first official comment on the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
“These were people who engaged in terrorism against the State of Israel,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “There was not a single diplomat there as far as I know.”
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