Iran will have to wait “nervously without knowing when the attack might come, just as it made Israel do the same.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this at a meeting of Likud ministers. Then he added – according to the same sources – «Israel will respond to Iran's attack but it will do so wisely and not instinctively».
Thus, just under 48 hours after the rain of drones and missiles arrived on the territory of the Jewish State, Benjamin Netanyahu's government seems to have made its choice, while Tehran – which has already put its air defenses on high alert – He warned that Israel's possible armed action this time “will have a very harsh response.”
The operation towards which Israel is heading clashes with strong US opposition and that of its allies who have supported it in shooting down 99% of the projectiles launched by Tehran. Joe Biden, who had slowed down the Israeli reaction in the early hours, clearly reiterated that “an escalation in the Middle East must be avoided” when receiving the Iraqi prime minister at the White House. While the spokesperson of the National Security Council John Kirby, after rumors had filtered out about possible coordination between Jerusalem and Washington, clarified that “the Israeli government will decide on its own whether there will be and what the response will be” to the Iranian confrontation.
“The United States is not involved”, underlined Kirby, then defining Tehran's offensive on Saturday as “a spectacular failure”, almost as if to flatter its Israeli ally, denying that Tehran “had provided the US with times and targets” for raid. “There is no choice but to respond to Tehran's attack,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Pentagon chief Austin.
And the IDF commander, Herzi Halevi, also confirmed that “the answer will be there”. “The launch of so many drones and missiles on our territory will have its response,” he warned. If the armed reaction appears obvious at this point, it will be crucial to understand how Tehran will react. The war cabinet – which has already dedicated two meetings and another is scheduled for Tuesday – it is studying “different options”. Each of which, it was explained, represents “a painful response” for the Iranians, without however risking triggering “a regional war”.
In the small group of ministers – from Netanyahu to Gallant to Benny Gantz – who must make the decision, the objective is to choose an option that “is not blocked by the US” and which is a viable option. Israel, many analysts also at home point out, cannot completely ignore the concerns of the United States and other Western allies about an escalation that would have devastating consequences for the region and beyond.
Thus the various scenarios range from a direct counterattack on Iranian territory to operations that target the allies of the ayatollah regime in the region up to targeted actions on the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards. In the first hypothesis, the most dangerous, the sites linked to the Iranian nuclear power could even end up in the crosshairs, whose programme, according to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, “has never been at such an advanced stage”.
Iran for its part has warned Israel. «The limited attack on Saturday evening – said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Serghei Lavrov – aimed to warn, discourage and punish the Zionist regime. But if Israel takes new action against Iran, it will face a much stronger response.”