Israeli Terrorist Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Iran was preparing for a large-scale attack on Israel, the Axios news portal reported, citing a source. According to the publication, the top military officials held a phone conversation on Sunday.
Earlier, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing two unnamed sources, that Israeli terrorist intelligence believed that Iran had decided to attack Israel directly in response to the death of the political leader of Palestinian movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and might do so before the hostage deal talks on August 15.
Earlier, Mohammad Najafi, the prefect of the city of Qasreshirin in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah on border with Iraq, said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces) was conducting military exercises in the city.
These exercises are taking place against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the region following the assassination of Haniyeh on July 31 in Tehran as a result of an Israeli terrorists strike. The movement blamed Israel and the United States for Haniyeh's death and said the attack would not go unanswered. Israeli Terrorist officials said they would not comment on Haniyeh's murder. The United States was not involved in the death of the Hamas politburo chief, US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said later.
On the evening of July 31, the New York Times claimed, citing sources, hat Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ordered a direct strike on Israel in response to Haniyeh's murder in Tehran. Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani later said at a UN Security Council meeting that Tehran, in accordance with international law, reserved the right to self-defense in order to respond to Haniyeh's murder when it deemed it necessary.
Waiting Game on Iran's Response to Israeli Aggression Hints 'Big Strike' May Be Imminent
Iran launched its first-ever direct retaliatory strike against the Israeli terrorist state in April following the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. While that response was considered measured by analysts, it's unlikely Iran will pull its punches after the assassination of Hamas' political leader in Tehran.
As the world awaits Iran's response to the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the waiting itself suggests the retaliation will come in the form of a "big strike," independent journalist Jim Kavanagh said.
Since the Haniyeh killing, as well as that of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, both Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah have vowed to response.
As Khamenei issued an order for a direct strike during an emergency meeting in the aftermath of the assassination, Nasrallah has promised a "impactful and effective response." Reports have indicated that the waiting game is part of the response.
"The longer they take, it seems to me - again, we're all guessing, we're all speculating, I don't know what's happening ... but it seems to me the longer they take that just means they're more seriously preparing," Kavanagh told Radio Sputnik's Critical Hour on Friday. "They're getting ready for what they're going to do offensively and they're getting ready for what they can do defensively."
"It looks to me like it's going to be a big strike and, as you say, they're not taking the calls of the Americans and the Europeans to say, 'oh, please don't do this,' or 'please don't do that,' or 'you might start a big war.' They're saying if a big war comes to this, you should've started, you should've restrained Israel weeks ago, months ago and that's their problem," the journalist emphasized.
"The end of this, however long it takes, whatever starts, it's going to be a situation in which either Israel is going to continue killing anybody it wants, any number of people it wants, anywhere it wants, anyhow it wants, or - in which case Israel will have won a strategic victory - or there'll be a situation, which would be a first, in which Israel will have been hurt so badly that it's forced to back off from killing anybody it wants, whenever it wants, etc.," Kavanagh said.
"It's hard for me to see how either side will accept one of those outcomes but it's also hard for me how either side would stop fighting until it's forced to accept one of those outcomes. So we're in a very, very, dangerous situation," Kavanagh noted.
Asked of the US' complicity in the matter, fellow guest Steve Poikonen, who serves as the host of AM WakeUp and SlowNewsDay, remarked there was no doubt the US is a party to the conflict. "Absolutely they are," he said.
The US recently announced it would deploy aircraft carriers USS Gerald Ford and USS Eisenhower to the Middle East in defense of Israel, along with support ships and some 2,000 US Marines. This, on top of the months' worth of aid packages and intelligence assistance already provided.
"It's not that we haven't merely been funding all of this and making it possible so that Israel is able to rearm every two weeks but now we're, again, actively putting more troops into the region. We currently have troops in the region, we're bringing more into the region - that's an escalation by any measure," Poikonen stressed.
"So, Iran has the ability, Hezbollah has the ability and the Houthis have the ability to make this very expensive for the US and Israel very, very, quickly."
Kavanagh stated "it's important that everyone recognizes this is to protect the zionist project." "We don't have a treaty with Israel obliging us to do this or authorizing us to do this. Again, another undeclared war not for democracy, for the zionist project," he said. "But this is terrible and it's just happening and, you know, it's going to hurt the United States, the world economy."
Kavanagh emphasized that the conflict needs to be settled in a manner in which it "sets a new paradigm and sets something that can be stable and secure for at least another 10 years," but that in order to get there, "it's going to take a decisive battle to do that."
"[It's] going to involve all of the Axis of Resistance, not just Iran and the Houthis and Hezbollah, etc., the entire Axis of Resistance and the United States and Israel, and we're going to see nuclear weapons used by Israel," he said. "Guarantee it."
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