TEHRAN SAYS U.S. SHOULD ‘STEP ASIDE’
Washington, Israel brace for possible retaliation after deadly air strike on Iranian consulate in Syria
Iran says it has asked the United States to “step aside” as the country prepares a response to a suspected Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria while Hezbollah, its main proxy in the Middle East, warned the Jewish state it is prepared for war.
In a written message to Washington, Iran “warned the US not to get dragged into Netanyahu’s trap”, Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, wrote on X, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US should “step aside so that you don’t get hit”.
“In response, the US asked Iran not to hit American targets,” Jamshidi said.
The US has not commented on the alleged message Iran had sent.
CNN reported that the US was on high alert and was preparing for a “significant” response from Iran against Israeli or American targets in the region. The network cited an unnamed US official.
NBC, citing two unnamed United States officials, said US President Joe Biden’s administration was concerned any attack could be inside Israel, specifically against “military or intelligence targets, rather than civilians”.
The Biden administration did take the unusual step of communicating directly to Iran that the US was unaware Monday’s strike in Damascus would happen, Bloomberg reported. That suggested the US was trying to prevent its own forces and bases in the Middle East being attacked.
Iran has said it will deliver a “slap” to Israel, its arch enemy. Still, it is unclear when that would happen or whether Iran would try to attack Israel directly or through one of its proxy groups such as Hezbollah, based in Lebanon.
The air strike hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing at least seven Iranians, including two generals.
While Israel has repeatedly targeted Iran-linked assets in Syria over the past few months, this was the first time an attack struck an Iranian diplomatic building.
Israel has been on alert since then, cancelling home leave for combat troops, calling up reserves and bolstering air defences.
Its military scrambled navigational signals over Tel Aviv on Thursday to disrupt GPS-navigated drones or missiles that might be fired at the country.
Speaking to Israeli forces at an airbase on Friday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was attacking enemies wherever it decided to do so.
“It could be in Damascus and it could be in Beirut,” he said. “The enemy is badly hit in all places and is therefore looking for ways to respond. We are ready with a multilayered defence.”
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday said a response from Iran was undoubtedly coming. But, he said, his group would not “interfere in such decisions”.
“And after that, how Israel will behave, the region would enter a new phase,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech for Quds Day, an annual event held to express solidarity with Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Nasrallah, who lives in hiding, highlighted the coordinated work of Iran’s so-called resistance groups in the region.
Hezbollah, the Middle East’s most powerful militia, said the group had not used “its primary arsenal” in the daily skirmishes with Israel along the southern border of Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7.
“We have not employed our main weapons yet, nor have we used our main forces,” he said.
Hezbollah was “completely prepared and ready” for any war with Israel, Nasrallah said.
“If they [Israelis] want a war, we say to them … welcome.”
Nasrallah reiterated his stance that the Lebanese front near the Israeli border in south Lebanon was linked to the Gaza war.
“When the war stops in Gaza it will stop here,” he added.
Hezbollah said on Friday that three of its fighters had been killed in exchanges with Israel. Its ally Amal said it had also lost three fighters to an air strike in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army said in a communique that it had bombed a “military complex” used by Amal and targeted several regions of southern Lebanon.
Quds Day solidarity rallies with the Palestinians were held across the region.
Hundreds marched in Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus, including members of Islamic Jihad, many chanting “Jerusalem we are coming”.
In Baghdad, pro-Iran groups organised a rally that drew around 2,000 people who chanted: “No to America, No to Israel.”