Israeli officials are voicing concerns about a possible military confrontation with “Iranian forces,” should the stand-off between Tehran and Washington escalate into a wider-Middle East war.
A senior defense official, who spoke to TV7 on condition of anonymity, stressed that “the tentacles of the Islamic Republic by means of its Revolutionary Guards are stretched throughout the region,” and as such, “in case of an Iranian-U.S. escalation, the regime is prepared to apply all of the tools at its disposal, to extract as much damage from the Unites States and its regional partners, including Israel.”
The comments by the senior defense official came just two days after similar concerns were voiced by Israeli Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is a member of Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet. In an interview with Israel’s Ynet News Agency, the Cabinet Minister underlined that “If there is some sort of conflagration between Iran and the United States, (or) between Iran and its neighbors, I’m not ruling out that they will activate (their proxies) Hezbollah (from Lebanon) and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, or even that they will try to fire missiles from Iran at the State of Israel.”
While the IDF refused to say whether it has altered its military preparedness that is regularly implemented ahead of an imminent escalation; The United States, has reportedly “updated (its) military plan” against Iran.
According to Administration officials that were quoted by the New York Times, “At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons.”