File image.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on April 17 that the “tiniest move” against the country would bring a “fierce” response.
“The smallest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a fierce, widespread and painful response against all its perpetrators,” the president warned, according to semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched some 300 missiles and drones at Israel over the night of April 13 and 14.
The unprecedented attack, which was codenamed “Operation Honest Promise,” was a response to the April 1 Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The strike claimed the lives of at least 13 people, including senior commanders from the IRGC.
The Israeli military alleged that 99% of the Iranian projectiles were intercepted by its military and allies. Still, two air bases in the south of the country and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights were hit.
Speaking at an annual army parade ahead of National Army Day tomorrow, Raisi said that the missile and drone attack was a limited one, and that if Iran had wanted to carry out a bigger attack, “nothing would remain from the Zionist regime.”
Israel has vowed to respond, without saying when or how, while its allies have called on both sides to avoid further escalation.
Raisi’s threat came just a day after CNN reported that the United States was expecting the Israeli response to the Iranian attack to be limited in scope.
A source familiar with the intelligence told the news network that there is U.S. intelligence to suggest Israel is weighing a narrow and limited strike inside Iran because they feel like they have to respond with a kinetic action of some kind given the unprecedented scale of the Iranian attack.
Meanwhile, a senior official in the administration of President Joe Biden said that Israel didn’t give the U.S. a warning about what their plans may be and when they could occur.
“We would hope that they would give us some warning so that we’re prepared to protect our personnel, not just military but diplomatic throughout the region,” the unnamed administration official told CNN. “But there’s no guarantee they will give us they will give us a heads up and they know when they give us a head’s up, we’re likely to again register our objection to whatever they’re about to conduct.”
The official went on to reveal that if Israel did not respond, the U.S. is “confident that there will be de-escalation” and the situation in the Middle East would go back to the status quo.
“But any additional move now opens up a series of other possibilities, some of which are quite frightening,” the official warned.
CNN’s report indicates that the U.S. is aware that Iran will not tolerate any Israeli attacks on its territory. The threat made by Raisi is also very clear. Yet, Washington and its allies are doing nothing to stop Israel from provoking another war that could cause even more chaos in the region.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
