US officials expect a possible Israeli response to Iran’s attack over the weekend to be limited in scope and most likely involve strikes against Iranian military forces and Iranian-backed proxies outside Iran, four US officials told NBC News on Tuesday.
According to the channel, the US assessment is based on conversations between US and Israeli officials that happened before Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night.
The US officials said as Israel was preparing for a possible Iranian attack last week, Israeli officials briefed US officials about possible response options.
However, they stressed that they have not been briefed on Israel’s final decision about how it will respond and that the options could have changed since the weekend attack. They also said that it is not clear when an Israeli response will happen but that it could happen at any time.
On Monday, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said additional US military assets that had been moved into the Middle East before Iran’s attack on Israel remain in place.
“As of right now, those (military) assets are still in place,” he said, without saying in which countries the assets were positioned.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a call on Monday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, expressing support for Israel after attacks from Iran but also stressing regional stability to prevent conflict from spreading.
In Washington, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether the US had been or expects to be briefed on any Israeli response plans. “We will let the Israelis speak to that,” he told reporters Monday.
“We are not involved in their decision-making process about a potential response,” Kirby said.
Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has postponed a visit to India scheduled for this week due to “ongoing events in the Middle East,” the US Embassy in New Delhi said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former head of US CENTCOM said Monday that Iran had about 150 ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel from Iranian territory, and appears to have used up most of that current stockpile in its weekend attack.
McKenzie discussed the attack in a panel discussion with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, a Washington-based think tank.
Also, the Wall Street Journal wrote on Tuesday that the Middle East conflict could push gasoline prices higher. It said gas is 50% more expensive than when Biden took office, after prices started to move higher again at the start of this year.
It said a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday that was conducted before Iran's attacks, showed just a third of American adults approve of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Commenting on the situation, Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary for Republican President George W. Bush, said “Turmoil, violence and a growing sense that international events are out of control hurt incumbents,” as opposed to “peace and quiet.”
But the politics surrounding the Middle East conflict were upended by the weekend's events, which left some Republicans calling for the US to retaliate militarily against Iran while the Biden administration urged only diplomatic responses, the newspaper said.
New Economic Sanctions
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday warned that the US intends to hit Iran with new sanctions in coming days over its unprecedented attack on Israel, and these actions could seek to reduce Iran's capacity to export oil.
“Treasury will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity,” she said.
She said the attack by Iran and its proxies underscores the importance of Treasury’s work to use its economic tools to counter Iran’s malign activity.
“From this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers,” Yellen said.
Dan Gerstein, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Joe Lieberman when he was a senator from Connecticut, said Iran's actions could buy Israel and Biden more time.
“Iran did what no other political actor could do—changing the narrative around Israel from bully to victim and rallying the sensible international center to Israel's side,” he said. “In doing so, they gave Biden a temporary gift and some breathing space to find a longer-term solution to the Gaza war.”
