US said to warn Iran it won’t be able to restrain Israel if Tehran attacks again
American B-52 bombers arrive in region as Israel reportedly identifies initial signs of Iran preparing for attack, vows strong response even if strike carried out via proxies
The US has reportedly warned Iran in recent days against launching another attack on Israel, adding that Washington will not be able to restrain Israel if it attacks again, the Axios news site reported Saturday, citing an unnamed US official and a former Israeli official.
“We told the Iranians: We won’t be able to hold Israel back, and we won’t be able to make sure that the next attack will be calibrated and targeted as the previous one,” the US official was quoted as saying.
The report quoted the official as saying the message had been conveyed directly to the Iranians, though the Israeli source said a message was passed to Tehran via Swiss intermediaries.
There was no response from Washington or Tehran to the report, which came hours after Iran’s supreme leader threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.
Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel in response to Jerusalem’s October 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and facilities and that Iran said killed at least five people.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iranian military facilities came weeks after the Islamic Republic’s October 1 attack, in which Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, sending most of the population rushing to bomb shelters and safe rooms. It caused relatively minor damage to military bases and some residential areas, and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank.
Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground operation in Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the US presidential election this Tuesday.
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported Saturday that while US authorities have identified “initial movements” that indicate Iran is weighing how to respond, there aren’t yet clear indications regarding when or how it will happen.
Channel 12 news reported, meanwhile, that Israel’s security establishment was estimating that Iran could choose to act via its Shiite militias in Iraq and Yemen, rather than responding directly, in an attempt to lower the risk of another Israeli attack on Iranian soil. The outlet said senior Israeli security officials were threatening to respond strongly to any attack regardless of where it originates.
Meanwhile, Arab media outlets published footage Saturday indicating that an Israeli Navy missile boat had crossed the Suez Canal and was now in the Red Sea carrying an advanced launcher capable of firing the advanced LORA missile, which was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and has a 400-kilometer range.
כלי תקשורת ערביים פרסמו תיעודים של סטי"ל שעובר בתעלת סואץ במצרים עם דגלי ישראל ומצרים. מהרשות של תעלת סואץ נמסר בתגובה לתיעודים ברשתות החברתיות כי הם מחויבים ליישם את ההסכמים הבינלאומיים, המבטיחים את חופש הניווט הימי לספינות שחוצות את התעלה – בין אם הן מסחריות ובין אם הן צבאיות -… pic.twitter.com/mch3Vhw9Fq
— Shachar Kleiman שחר קליימן (@skleiman5791) November 2, 2024
This is in addition to US deployment in the region.
The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier likely is in the Arabian Sea, while Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers would be coming to the region to deter Iran and its terror allies.
The US Central Command said early Sunday that the B-52 bombers had arrived in the region.
B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from Minot Air Force Base's 5th Bomb Wing arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. pic.twitter.com/6mDs4n5G2u
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) November 2, 2024
Earlier Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.
“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.
The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.”
But efforts by Iran to downplay the attack faltered as satellite photos and multiple reports in global media showed Israel’s strikes had crippled Iran’s ballistic missile production by destroying at least a dozen solid fuel mixers, and disabled crucial air defenses protecting major energy installations.
Iran’s terror proxies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran has long used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.
Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza after the October 7, 2023, massacre in which some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 as hostages. Israel recently stepped up strikes on Hezbollah, which began launching rockets at Israel a day after the Hamas onslaught. Israel has vowed to push Hezbollah away from the border and enable tens of thousands of evacuees to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Iran, which directly attacked Israel with missiles and drones for the first time in April, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests.
Iran has long threatened Israel with destruction and called to wipe out the Jewish state.
On Sunday, Iran marks the 45th anniversary of the US Embassy hostage crisis, following the Persian calendar. The November 4, 1979, storming of the embassy by Islamist students led to the 444-day crisis, which cemented the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that persists today.
AP contributed to this report.
