U.S., allies warn of Iranian retaliation on Israel

WASHINGTON — The United States and its allies are sounding an unusually urgent alarm over Iran’s possible plans to retaliate in the coming days over Israel’s purported killing of senior Iranian officials at a diplomatic mission in Syria.

An Iranian action, it is feared, would likely provoke an Israeli response, which could ratchet up violence in the region.

U.S. officials said this week that Iran appears to be lining up a series of potential retaliations. Those include direct attacks on Israeli assets — within Israeli territory or at diplomatic missions, or operations carried out by proxy groups, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon on Israel’s northern border, and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.

“Iran is threatening to launch a major attack on Israel,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “Our commitment to Israel’s security in the face of these threats from Iran and its allies is unwavering.”

The trigger for the latest IsraelIran standoff is the April 1 bombing of an Iranian building adjacent to Tehran’s embassy in Damascus, in which seven highranking Iranian military officers from the Islamic Republican Guard were killed. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Iran maintains that the attack violated international law.

“The evil regime (Israel) made a mistake and must be punished,” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this week.

The U.S. is urging restraint by Iran and warning that no strikes should be carried out against U.S. targets. To Israel, the U.S. is saying it will offer support in the case of a major assault but also is urging a calibrated reaction from Israel commiserate with the scale of Tehran’s operation.

The U.S. has insisted to Iran that it was not involved with nor aware of the April 1 attack.