US President Joe Biden vowed on Wednesday that American support for Israel is “rock solid” amid fears the Middle Eastern country could soon be attacked by Iran.
“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its allies is rock-solid. Let me say it again: rock solid. We will do everything we can to protect Israel’s security,” Biden said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Biden’s top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, confirmed his words, telling Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a phone call that the US would stand with Israel if Iran decides to attack.
An attack by Iran or its allies on military and government targets in Israel is imminent. Bloomberg News reported citing intelligence sources, with one source saying it is more a matter of when, not if.
Tensions flared in the Middle East today after an Iranian news agency published a report on
But Iran has vowed to retaliate for an Israeli attack in Syria on April 1, which killed several senior Iranian commanders when Israeli forces overran the Iranian embassy building in Damascus.
US President Joe Biden (photo) vowed on Wednesday that US support for Israel is ‘iron strong’
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (pictured) has vowed to take revenge on Israel for the attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus
Rescue workers search the rubble of a building belonging to the Iranian embassy a day after an airstrike in Damascus
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks at the coffins of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel “must be punished and it will be punished” for the attacks on the embassy. He noted in a speech for Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday that attacking an embassy “means that they have attacked our territory.”
“The evil regime has made a mistake and it must be punished and will be punished,” he added, according to state news agency IRNA.
Iran’s main proxy group is Hezbollah, which is based in southern Lebanon and has exchanged fire with Israeli forces almost daily since the war in Gaza broke out in October.
Israel has not explicitly acknowledged that it was behind the attack, but it has warned its military.
And Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on X: “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran.”
There are fears that an open war between Israel and Iran could spiral into a much broader conflict after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in an apparent response to Ayatollah’s promise of retaliation, said Israel would respond if Iran attacked the country from its own would attack territory.
Emergency services and security personnel search the rubble at the site of the attack on a building annexed to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus, on April 1, 2024
Rescue workers search the rubble of a building belonging to the Iranian embassy a day after an airstrike in Damascus on April 2, 2024
The rubble of a building belonging to the Iranian embassy is pictured a day after an airstrike in Damascus on April 2, 2024
He tagged Iran’s leader in a message to X yesterday and wrote: “If Iran attacks from its own territory, Israel will respond and attack inside Iran.”
Israel has already been battling enemies in the north, announcing on Sunday that it has launched airstrikes on eastern Lebanon and hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites after the Iran-backed group downed an Israeli drone, as both sides continue to exchange fire amid escalating regional tensions.
The Israeli military said in a statement that fighter jets struck a military complex and three other Hezbollah sites in the eastern city of Baalbek.
It said the attack was in response to the downing of an unmanned aerial vehicle by Hezbollah in Lebanese airspace, which the group identified as the Israeli-made Hermes 900 drone.
Hezbollah said it later fired dozens of Katyusha rockets that hit an air defense base in the occupied Golan Heights in retaliation for Israeli attacks on eastern Lebanon.
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes hit targets in the city of Khiam, southern Lebanon, on April 8, 2024
A decommissioned minibus is seen after Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon
Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern border since October 8, a day after Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel that sparked Israel’s war in Gaza and escalated regional tensions.
Israeli shelling has killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians, security sources say.
Some 90,000 people have also been displaced in southern Lebanon, while more than 96,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s northern border area, officials on both sides say.
The US and other countries have sought a diplomatic solution to the firefight between Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah said it would not stop the fire until a ceasefire in Gaza is in place.