عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

NBC: US Officials Believe Israel Will Target Military and Energy Sites in Iran

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Iranian Revolution Khomeini and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a building in a street in Tehran, Iran, October 7, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Iranian Revolution Khomeini and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a building in a street in Tehran, Iran, October 7, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
TT
TT

NBC: US Officials Believe Israel Will Target Military and Energy Sites in Iran

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Iranian Revolution Khomeini and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a building in a street in Tehran, Iran, October 7, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: People walk past a mural depicting the late leader of the Iranian Revolution Khomeini and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on a building in a street in Tehran, Iran, October 7, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

US officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets in its potential response to Iran's attack this month to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reported on Saturday.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in a year of war as Israel battles Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel has repeatedly said it will respond to Iran's missile barrage on Oct. 1, which was launched in retaliation for Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the killings of a string of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, according to Reuters.
There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, the NBC report said, citing unnamed US officials and adding that Israel has not made final decisions about how and when to act.
US and Israeli officials said a response could come during the current Yom Kippur holiday, according to the report.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants erupted a year ago when Hezbollah began launching rockets at northern Israel at the start of the Gaza war, and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.
Hezbollah said on Sunday it was fighting Israeli forces trying to infiltrate Ramya village in southern Lebanon.
Israel's military said it continues to operate in southern Lebanon to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure".
"Over the past day, the IAF (air force) has struck approximately 200 Hezbollah targets deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon, including terrorist cells, launchers, anti-tank missile posts, and terrorist infrastructure sites," it said.
Israel also said five launches that crossed from Lebanon were intercepted by the air force.
UN PEACEKEEPERS
Israel has intensified its military operations in recent weeks, bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border.
Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.
Israel's expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to Lebanon's government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but includes scores of women and children.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday, expressed "deep concern" about reports that Israeli forces had fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon in recent days and urged Israel to ensure safety for them and the Lebanese military, the Pentagon said.
Five peacekeepers have been injured in three separate incidents since Thursday, the peacekeeping mission UNIFIL has said.
The fighting in the region which includes all of Tehran's allied militant groups -- Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq -- has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into a full-scale conflict in the oil-producing Middle East.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement on Sunday it had targeted a military site in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with drones as part of its support of the Palestinian people and Lebanon. It said it would continue escalating attacks against Israeli strongholds.
The war in Gaza began after a Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the militant group Hamas, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and has laid waste to the enclave. 

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Iran Looking for a Way Out... Does Not Trust Israel’s ‘Machinations’

An Israeli soldier stands next to the remains of Emad ballistic missile at Julis army base, days after an attack by Iran on Israel, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters
An Israeli soldier stands next to the remains of Emad ballistic missile at Julis army base, days after an attack by Iran on Israel, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters
TT
TT

Iran Looking for a Way Out... Does Not Trust Israel’s ‘Machinations’

An Israeli soldier stands next to the remains of Emad ballistic missile at Julis army base, days after an attack by Iran on Israel, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters
An Israeli soldier stands next to the remains of Emad ballistic missile at Julis army base, days after an attack by Iran on Israel, in southern Israel. Photo: Reuters

Iran has not yet received serious assurances from the Biden administration that Israel’s retaliation to an Iranian missile barrage on Oct. 1 would be limited and would exclude the capital, Tehran, or oil and nuclear facilities, US and other regional sources affirmed.
Iran’s government is extremely nervous and has been engaging in urgent diplomatic efforts with countries in the Middle East to gauge whether they can reduce the scale of Israel’s response to its missile attack earlier this month and – if that fails – help protect Tehran, US reports quoting officials said.
Israel’s “Machinations”
Iran’s anxiety stems from uncertainty about whether the US can convince Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites and oil facilities, and the fact that its most important proxy militia in the region, Hezbollah, has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations in recent weeks, sources told CNN on Saturday.
The administration of US President Joe Biden keeps affirming that it is consulting with Israel on how it plans to respond to Iran’s October 1 attack.
US officials have made clear they do not want Israel to target Iranian nuclear sites or oil fields.
US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Wednesday, and asked that Israel’s retaliation should be “proportional.”
However, a senior administration official said he can’t “put too much stock in the machinations” of the Israeli government.
Also, the Biden administration is deeply worried that the ongoing tit-for-tat attacks between Iran and Israel, which began earlier this year after Israel struck what Iran said was its consulate building in Damascus, could spiral into a major regional war that pulls the US in, too.
A major part of the fears is that the Israeli government is ignoring the US warnings and is not informing the administration about its dark plans.
Gap Between US and Israel Could Expand
Israel also did not consult with the US before conducting a massive attack that exploded thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives last month, or before assassinating Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and upending a delicate ceasefire proposal that had been put forward by the US and France less than 48 hours earlier.
While Israel has been very ambiguous about the timing and date of its response to Iran, CNN quoted an Israeli official as saying that Israel’s security cabinet has not yet reached a decision on how to proceed.
In return, US officials said while the gap between the US and Israeli positions is narrowing, it may not remain that way. “We can’t actually know whether they voted or not,” a senior administration official said of the Israeli cabinet’s discussions.
CNN reported that as of last week, Israel had not given any assurances that it would not target Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is planning to visit Washington next Tuesday to discuss his country’s response to the Iranian attack.
This week, Gallant had issued a strong warning to Iran saying, “Our strike will be powerful, precise, and above all – surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”
Iran Looking for Way Out
An Arab diplomat told CNN that Iran has been particularly interested in getting help from Middle East countries in preventing an Israeli attack and using their influence with Washington to help find a solution to the crisis.
The US does not believe that Iran wants to become entangled in a full-scale war with Israel.
But a US official said that ultimately “we just do not know what [Iran] will do.”
Key voices within Iran will have different ideas about if and how to respond to Israel, but that will depend on the scale and scope of the highly anticipated Israeli move, another US official said.
Diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that Iran has sent a message to Israel through European channels about its possible response to any attack that comes from Israel,
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Iranian message sent indirectly to Israel says that Iran would “shrug off a limited Israeli strike.”
Yet Tehran warned that “it would have no choice but to cross the red line” if its oil or nuclear facilities come under attack.