US says Israeli attack on Iran after retaliatory strikes to be limited

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: NBC News
16 Apr 2024 09:19

The US officials claim that no briefing has been done regarding "Israel’s" final decision on a response as it remains unclear when a response will happen.

"Israel’s" UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan shows a video of Iranian missiles flying over al-Aqsa Mosque while he addresses the UNSC during an emergency meeting at UN HQ, on April 14, 2024. (AP)

The US expects "Israel's" response to Iran to be limited in scope as it will most likely involve strikes against Iranian military forces and Iranian allies outside the country, NBC News reported, citing four US officials.

The US assessment comes against the backdrop of conversations held between US and Israeli officials before Iran's massive retaliatory strikes on Saturday night in response to the Israeli aggression on its consulate in Damascus.

The US officials stated that they were not briefed on "Israel’s" final decision on a response as it remains unclear when it will happen, still maintaining that it could happen at any given moment.

They added that before the actual attack, the US believed the possible scenarios ranged from a modest attack by Iran to a widespread one with Israeli casualties and the destruction of Israeli facilities, while the possible Israeli responses went from no military action to strikes inside Iran.

However, they claimed that because no casualties resulted from Iran's attacks, a less aggressive option could come from "Israel".

Striking inside Syria could also be an option as per three of the officials as they noted that the response could include striking shipments or facilities storing advanced missile parts, weapons, or components.

They confirmed that the US will not partake in the Israeli response, but they anticipate "Israel" to share intel beforehand.

However, the US cannot but find any way to try to exert more pressure on Iran to please "Israel". US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed today that Iran's actions "threaten stability in the Middle East and could cause economic spillovers." The US would use sanctions and work with allies to keep disrupting what she called Iran's "malign and destabilizing activity," completely ignoring the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.

Suffering in silence

Upon the launching of the attack on Saturday, US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not participate in the response attack on Iran when that happens.

On Saturday evening, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force announced that it targeted Israeli positions in occupied Palestine with dozens of drones and missiles, as part of the retaliatory response to the malicious Israeli crime against the Iranian embassy in Syria.

Israeli Channel 13 correspondent Matan Hodorov said on Monday, less than 48 hours later, that the Iranian attack proved to be highly costly, with the National Security Research Institute revealing that it cost the Israeli occupation a hefty 4.5 billion shekels ($1.2 billion) to intercept drones and missiles launched by Tehran, and that did not even allow them to down all of the projectiles.

What the Israeli journalist said goes hand-in-hand with a WSJ report that underlined that the Israeli occupation could not have bore the Iranian attack were it not for foreign aid and intervention.

"American, British, and Jordanian warplanes played an especially important role in downing drones," WSJ said, claiming that the majority of Iran's drones and missiles were destroyed before reaching Israeli airspace due to the assistance it received.

Netanyahu has been out-of-the-ordinarily silent regarding what he might be plotting, although he has been extremely outspoken about what he would like to do since the start of the war on Gaza.

Now, however, despite mounting pressure from both domestic extremists advocating for a forceful response and foreign allies advising restraint, Netanyahu has refrained from public commentary on the matter since Sunday, when he lauded what he called a successful interception via a brief post on X.

Meetings of the Israeli occupation's war cabinet, which has convened twice since Iran's operation, have failed to yield a definitive response strategy, at least publicly. Additionally, Netanyahu reached out to US President Joe Biden for consultation.