Israel retreats, delays plan to strike back at Iran after US call: Sources
Israel has for now retreated from its plan to strike back at Iran after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a call from US President Joe Biden, sources say.
Citing an unnamed source within the Israeli cabinet, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday that the Tel Aviv regime had already approved various response options for Iran’s massive attack, initially intended for immediate execution.
“The response won’t be what was planned any longer, diplomatic sensitivities won out. There will be a response, but it seems it will be different from what was planned,” the source further told Kan.
On April 1, the Israeli regime committed a terrorist attack against Iran’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus.
The Israeli attack resulted in the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, and five of their accompanying officers.
In retaliation, the IRGC targeted the occupied territories late on Saturday and early on Sunday with a barrage of drones and missiles. The retaliatory strikes - dubbed Operation True Promise - have inflicted damage on Israeli military bases across the Palestinian occupied territories.
Following Iran’s attack, Israel said it must retaliate to preserve the credibility of its deterrence. This is while Iran has already warned Israel against taking any retaliatory actions and also advised the United States to keep away from involvement in the conflict and signaled that it viewed the matter as “concluded.”
The Israeli outlet also quoted an unnamed Western diplomat as saying that there is still an understanding that the Tel Aviv regime would respond but the delay suggested that the response would be weaker than the one originally envisioned.
Separately, the American news website Axios cited five unnamed Israeli and US sources as saying that Israel wanted to strike back on Iran on Monday night but decided to postpone it at the eleventh hour.
Hours after Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel on Sunday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi warned Tel Aviv in a statement, saying “If the Zionist regime or its supporters demonstrate reckless behavior, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response.”
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