Iranian officials have told Arab diplomats that Tehran is determined to strike Israel even if doing so sparks a regional war, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The United States has asked European nations and other allies to convey a message to Tehran not to escalate, the Journal said. U.S. officials have also been pressing Israel to lower tensions, according to the report.
The Islamic Republic’s apparent rejection of calls for restraint came as Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi arrived in Tehran on a rare visit to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other officials.
The London-based Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat news site cited a Jordanian political source as saying on Sunday night that Safadi stressed to the Iranians the “neutrality of Jordan’s airspace.”
Amman’s top diplomat reportedly noted that the Arab kingdom had condemned the alleged Israeli assassination of Hamas terrorist Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, claiming that the July 31 move was an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “spread conflict in the region.”
Pezeshkian was said to have told Safadi that “the Zionists’ arrogance” would not go unanswered, according to Tehran’s official IRNA news agency.
The Iranian regime has vowed revenge following last week’s killing of Haniyeh, Hamas’s top political leader, who died in an explosion at his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in Tehran. Both Iran and Hamas have accused Jerusalem of carrying out the assassination.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct attack on the Jewish state following the alleged bombing of the secure compound, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing Iranian officials.
Israel has also been awaiting the response by Iran’s terror proxies to its killing of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30. Shukr was responsible for a recent rocket attack that killed 12 children in the Golan Heights, according to the IDF, and was also behind the 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members in Beirut.
Three U.S. and Israeli officials who talked to Axios reporter Barak Ravid over the weekend said they expect Iran to attack as early as Monday.
Speaking at a memorial service for revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in Jerusalem on Sunday, Netanyahu said that “Iran and its minions are looking to surround us in a stranglehold of terrorism.”
“We are determined to stand against them on every front and in every arena—near and far. Whoever seeks to harm us will pay a hefty price,” the prime minister added, according to a readout from his office.
Netanyahu convened the chiefs of Israel’s security agencies on Sunday evening for a situation assessment at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Channel 12 News reported, noting that the government is still struggling to create a “definitive picture” of the assault it could be facing.
The report said that Israel’s defense establishment was considering the possibility of “preventive actions or attacks” it could initiate to thwart Iran, “in Lebanon or perhaps in other places where necessary.”
A source in Jerusalem told NBC News earlier on Sunday that the government is bracing for a combined attack by Iran and Hezbollah lasting “several days,” with missile attacks from the north and east.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), was scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday as part of a pre-planned regional tour that also includes stops in Jordan and several Gulf states.
Kurilla’s visit will focus on building a multilateral defensive alliance similar to the one that fended off the vast majority of the more than 300 missiles and explosive drones Iran fired at the Jewish state in mid-April.
U.S. officials told CNN on Friday that it remains to be seen whether the coalition could be re-established before Iran attacks and whether all the countries that assisted the April effort are still willing to participate.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in televised remarks on Thursday announced that international partners would “strengthen their forces in the region” amid the looming Iran threat.
