US official: 'Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now'

Iran threatens to escalate if Israel attacks, says nuclear or oil targets a ‘red line’

NYT says Israeli response to Iranian missile barrage last week will likely target military bases, maybe intelligence or leadership sites, but unlikely to hit nuclear facilities yet

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks to the press after meeting with Syrian officials at the Iranian embassy in Damascus on October 5, 2024. (Louai Beshara/AFP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks to the press after meeting with Syrian officials at the Iranian embassy in Damascus on October 5, 2024. (Louai Beshara/AFP)

Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against attacking any of its infrastructure, amid fears of a possible Israeli assault on oil or nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel last week.

“We advise the Zionist regime (Israel) not to test the resolution of the Islamic Republic. If any attack against our country takes place, our response will be more powerful,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday.

“Any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response,” he added.

Araghchi was speaking at an event in Tehran celebrating the first anniversary of the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war in Gaza.

The Islamic Republic fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week. Much of the barrage was intercepted by air defenses, and the attack ultimately killed one Palestinian and wounded two Israelis.

After the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Tehran had made a “big mistake tonight” and vowed that “it will pay for it.”

A New York Times report on Monday said that Israel’s first retaliation will likely focus on military bases, and maybe intelligence or leadership sites, but that Israel will probably decline to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities unless the Islamic Republic escalates further.

Israel is reportedly also considering a strike on Iranian oil assets, which could deal a heavy economic blow to the country and spike global oil prices.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett urged Israel on Tuesday to strike the nuclear sites, citing “a once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity,” in a Hebrew video statement posted online.

He has made the argument repeatedly since the ballistic missile attack, including in English on foreign media platforms.

“For the first time, we have the ability to act against Iran without fearing a terrible and intolerable reaction,” he said in the video, referring to the weakness of Tehran’s proxies, the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Rassul Sanairad warned Israel on Sunday that any attack on nuclear or energy sites would cross a “red line” and “would have an impact on the kind of response by Iran.”

Iran’s domestically built centrifuges are displayed in an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements, in Tehran, Iran, February 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

In late 2023, Iran — which insists its nuclear program is strictly peaceful — accelerated its enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent fissile purity, close to the 90% of weapons grade, at two sites.

In theory it has enough material enriched to that level for almost four bombs, according to a yardstick of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN watchdog.

Tehran said its attack on Israel last week came in response to the assassination in late September of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, which has been attacking Israel daily for a year.

It also cited the July death in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader, for which Israel was widely blamed.

Israel has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and various other Iranian proxies in the region, since Hamas attacked Israel one year ago, drawing supportive attacks from other terror groups.

Illustrative — United States CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla (left) meets in Israel with IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in this handout photo released on June 11, 2024. (IDF)

US President Joe Biden said last Wednesday, the day after the missile attack, that he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites. On Friday, Biden also said that if he were in Israel’s shoes, he would “be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields.”

Meanwhile, a report in Axios Tuesday said the White House has grown increasingly distrustful of what Israel tells the US about its war plans, especially in light of several major attacks blamed on Israel — such as the assassination of Haniyeh, and the explosion of Hezbollah operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies — that came as a surprise to the Americans.

The administration was also only told about the massive airstrike targeting Nasrallah once fighter jets were in the air.

“Our trust of the Israelis is very low right now and for a good reason,” an unnamed US official told Axios. “They tell us what we want to hear — the problem is lack of trust.”

Two of the officials reportedly said that White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had told Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Friday that the US expects “clarity and transparency” from Israel over its plans for a potential attack on Iran.

The officials noted that any Israel strike would have an impact on US forces in the region.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Michael Kurilla met with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the weekend, and Gallant is scheduled to travel to Washington on Wednesday to meet with American defense officials, including about a potential Israeli strike on Iran.

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