The sources said he was worried Iran It stems from uncertainty about whether the United States can persuade Israel Not to strike Iranian nuclear sites and oil installations.
Meanwhile, an Iranian source familiar with the diplomatic discussions said on Saturday that Iran had informed the United States and some countries in the Middle East that it would respond to any new attack by Israel, “contrary to some fake news.”
At the same time, the American network quoted an Israeli official as saying: Israeli Security Cabinet He has not yet reached a decision on how to proceed, regarding the response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack.
The United States was consulting with Israel about how it planned to respond to Iran’s attack on October 1, and American officials made clear that they did not want Israel to target Iranian nuclear sites or oil fields. US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, their first conversation in nearly two months, telling him that Israel’s response must be “proportionate.”
The Biden administration is deeply concerned that the ongoing tit-for-tat attacks between Iran and Israel, which began earlier this year after Israel struck what Iran said was its consulate building in Damascus, could escalate into a major regional war that also draws the United States into it.
A large part of the concern is that US influence with Israel has appeared to diminish steadily over the past year. Similar to its operations in Gaza, Israel has increasingly ignored US calls for greater restraint in Lebanon, where an intensified Israeli bombing campaign and ground offensive has killed more than 1,400 people since late last month.
Israel did not consult with the United States before launching the massive attack, which led to the explosion of thousands of radio communication devices used by elements Hezbollah Last month, or before the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and the failure of the delicate ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States and France less than 48 hours ago.
An Israeli official told CNN on Friday that the Israeli security cabinet has not yet reached a decision on how to proceed. While the gap between the American and Israeli positions is narrowing, it may not remain that way, as an American official said.
“We can’t actually know whether they voted or not,” a senior administration official said of the Israeli Cabinet discussions, expressing skepticism about the level of transparency about what Israel shares with the United States. The official noted that they could not “place much confidence in the machinations” of the Israeli government.
As of last week, it had not been submitted Israel Any guarantees that it will not target Iranian nuclear facilities, as the American news network reported.
For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant issued a strong warning to Iran about his country’s response on Wednesday, saying: “Our strike will be strong, precise and above all – sudden. They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”
