israel-says-it-s-ready-to-handle-iranian-threat

Rivals Iran and Israel on Sunday vowed to attack each other, with an advisor to Iran's supreme leader warning that Israeli embassies were "no longer safe." 

This followed an attack in Syria that Tehran blamed on Tel Aviv, which killed at least 13 people – including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior leader of the Iranian Quds Force.

In response to the Iranian threats, Israeli authorities said their soldiers could "handle Iran."

 

Iran on Friday had asked the United States to step aside as it planned a response attack to an Israeli Airstrike in Syria, both Israel and the United States have been on high alert since Friday's warning. 

Tehran pledged to revenge the air strike in Damascus that destroyed the Iranian embassy's consular annexe and killed two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps  (IRGC) generals, Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.

 

Zahedi, 63, who was killed in the strike was second-highest ranked general in IRGC, since General Qasem Soleimani's killing in 2020.

 

The Quds Force is a special branch of the IRGC.

 

“The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told local Iranian media. 
Amid threats of attack, “Israel has shut down multiple embassies around the region,” he added. 

 

However, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s office said that “they had completed the assessment, and are ready to deal with Iranian threat.”

 

Meanwhile, writing for The National, Raghida Dergham, head of the Beirut Institute, opined that Iran was unlikely to be interested in a full-scale war but perhaps wanted to show Israel the risk of a costly conflict.

 

“One likely decision by Tehran was  to increase support for the Houthis, encouraging them to escalate Red Sea attacks to disrupt international maritime trade,” she said.