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Iran stepped up its threats to avenge a suspected Israeli airstrike last week that killed a number of senior commanders, warning Sunday that Israeli diplomatic posts around the world are now “legitimate” targets for a retaliatory attack.
A senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iran’s official news agency Sunday that none of Israel’s embassies should be considered safe after the April 1 strike that demolished an Iranian Consulate building in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The April 1 bombing — which Israel has yet to confirm it carried out — killed a reported 12 people, including at least four senior members of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The attack has sent fears soaring that Iran would strike back against Israeli and U.S. targets, both directly and through its network of regional militia groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Israel has said it is braced for any attack and ready to respond.
Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, head of Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, issued his own warning Saturday at the funeral for Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahdi, the top commander killed in last week’s Syrian strike.
But like other top Iranian officials, Gen. Bagheri seemed wary of being drawn into a full-scale direct war with Israel, which retains a powerful military capability despite its ongoing war with Palestinian Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip and regular exchanges with Iran-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border to the north.
“The time, type and plan of the operation will be decided by us, in a way that makes Israel regret what it did,” the general said, according to The Associated Press. “This will definitely be done.”
The popular Iranian newspaper Shargh made a similar point in a commentary over the weekend, saying Israel’s unusually brazen attack on senior military leaders at a diplomatic facility appeared designed to goad Tehran into a hasty response.
“The occupiers were trying to make the Islamic Republic of Iran quickly enter an emotional atmosphere and a suicidal reaction with this attack,” the newspaper wrote. “Therefore, Tehran should determine and choose the level, intensity and type of reaction, as well as its time and place, based on the requirements arising from national interests and security. “
U.S. officials say American military assets in the region are on high alert in expectation of a significant Iranian retaliatory attack in the coming days, with one Biden administration official telling CBS News that such a strike is seen as “inevitable.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that U.S. installations and personnel in the region face a sharply higher threat following the Israel airstrike
“I think Americans in the area remain in danger. Remember, Iranian proxies have continued to attack U.S. troops in the area, again, with the Biden administration being slow to respond and ultimately responding to those attacks,” the Ohio Republican said.
Mr. Rogers said Israel’s decision to strike an Iranian diplomatic site in Syria was “legitimate” given Tehran’s work with anti-U.S. and anti-Israel elements inside Syria.
“At the same time, it still is very unwise, as we were trying to put pressure on Iran to keep them out of this conflict,” the lawmaker said.
The White House has tried to distance itself from the original attack, saying it was not aware Israel was planning the Syrian strike and the U.S. military had no role in the operation.
The attack came three days before a tense phone call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the military and humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Mr. Biden in that call also expressed support for Israel against any threat from Iran, a White House readout of the call said.
Israel was active on another front Sunday, announcing it had withdrawn most of its forces from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis as the country marked six months since the Oct. 7 terror rampage by Palestinian Hamas terrorists that killed 1,200 civilians and set off the most recent round of fighting.
Israel is under growing pressure from the Biden administration to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza for civilians, highlighted by a mistaken Israeli military missile attack last week that killed seven workers for an international aid agency.
After their Thursday phone call, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would reopen a key land crossing into Gaza and open an Israeli port to aid deliveries for civilians caught in the fighting.
It was not clear if the Khan Younis withdrawal was a move by Israel’s government to address Washington’s concerns, but Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday made it clear the offensive will go on so long as Hamas continues to hold an estimated 100 hostages from the Oct. 7 attack.
International negotiators — including delegations from both Israel and Hamas and William Burns, director of the CIA — reportedly have returned to Cairo to discuss a possible peace deal.
“There will be no cease-fire without the return of hostages,” Mr. Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday in Jerusalem. “Israel is ready for a deal, but Israel is not ready to surrender.”
Israel Defense Forces officials said the Khan Younis pullout was designed to give ground troops time to “recuperate and prepare for future operations,” and made it clear an assault on the final major Hamas stronghold in the Gaza city of Rafah was still being planned.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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