via naturalnews
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles targeting Israel on Saturday, April 13, in retaliation to a suspected Israeli strike on Iranian embassy compound in Syria. A young girl was critically injured during the attack, but most of the drones and missiles were downed before reaching Israeli territory.
A senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration said Tehran did not warn Washington before its attack on Israel, and that it was aiming to cause significant damage. “They did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of … ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.'” Tehran sent the U.S. a message only after the strikes began and the intent was to be “highly destructive” said the official.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Sunday, April 14, that Iran gave neighboring countries and the U.S. 72 hours’ notice it would launch the strikes. Turkish, Jordanian and Iraqi officials have confirmed receiving such notice, and the mainstream media has actually reported as early as Wednesday, April 10, about the U.S. warning of imminent attack by Iran on Israeli assets.
Iran has been threatening revenge strikes against Israel for the past few days ever since Israel conducted airstrikes against the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, which killed several Iranians, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
On the evening of Friday, April 12, Iranian state-owned news outlet Mehr News Agency announced that all air activity over Tehran’s airspace would be temporarily suspended beginning at midnight due to “military maneuvers.”
Alongside this announcement, Mehr posted a video depicting missiles with the caption “Maybe tonight… Stay tuned.” However, the agency swiftly deleted both the announcement and the video.
Right around the same time, U.S. National Security Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk reportedly conveyed a message to Iran through the foreign ministers of Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This message apparently emphasized America’s commitment to Israel’s defense and warned of a potential joint U.S.-Israeli response in the event of an Iranian strike.
Israel, U.S. know Iran will retaliate
Both Israel and the U.S. are working diligently on both military and diplomatic fronts, not necessarily to prevent retaliation but rather to mitigate its impact and minimize casualties.
Despite Iran’s desire to avoid a direct conflict with the U.S., it possesses significant strategic assets, including nuclear facilities, military industries, oil infrastructure and dams. Disruption of any of these could have severe economic consequences for Iran.
Both American and Israeli forces have bolstered their surveillance and interception capabilities to detect and neutralize potential threats originating from Iran or its proxies. This includes advanced early detection systems deployed across the Gulf region.
The U.S. has also announced restrictions on personal travel for its employees and their families in Israel, citing the heightened tensions with Iran.
In a security alert posted on its website, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem limited the movement of embassy staff and family to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv and Beersheba metropolitan areas until further notice. Transit between these designated areas for personal travel is allowed.
These measures align with the U.S. government’s policy of providing security updates and guidance to American citizens residing in or traveling to countries where security situations warrant caution.
Asked about this security alert, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller pointed to Iranian threats against Israel as the main cause.
“We conduct ongoing assessments all the time about the situation on the ground,” said Miller during a press briefing. “I’m not going to speak to the specific assessment that led to us to restrict our employees’ and family members’ personal travel, but clearly we are monitoring the threat environment in the Middle East and specifically in Israel.”
Watch this clip from Fox News discussing the possibility of Iranian retaliation against the airstrikes on the embassy in Damascus.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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