Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday told his G7 counterparts that an attack on Israel by Iran and Hezbollah could start as early as Monday, Axios reported, citing three sources.
Tehran Times declared on Monday morning that “The specter of an imminent Iranian retaliation hangs heavy over Israel as the regime scrambles to contain the fallout from the assassination of Hamas Political Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. With that, Western media has returned to its familiar playbook, spreading unfounded claims like wildfire to protect Israel from facing the consequences of its actions.”
The Secretary of State initiated an urgent conference call with key US allies. The aim was to orchestrate a concerted diplomatic effort to persuade Iran and Hezbollah to exercise restraint in their retaliatory actions. He emphasized that minimizing the scale of their response offers the best hope for averting a full-scale conflict.
The call comes in the wake of Israel’s targeted killings of Hamas political figure Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah military leader Fuad Shukr in Lebanon. According to sources who spoke with Axios, Blinken conveyed the administration’s belief that both Iran and Hezbollah are poised to retaliate.
The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Sunday issued the statement, along with the High Representative of the European Union, expressing their “deep concern at the heightened level of tension in the Middle East, which threatens to ignite a broader conflict in the region,” and urging all parties to refrain from retaliatory violence, saying “No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday said in a phone conversation with Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon that his country will certainly use its legitimate and inherent right to defend its security, sovereignty and territorial integrity to create deterrence against Israel’s aggressive measures.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will undoubtedly use its legitimate and inherent right to defend its security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity to create deterrence against the aggressive actions of the Zionist regime and the continuation of security and stability in West Asia,” the Iranian substitute FM said.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was killed in the helicopter crash that took away from us the hangman from Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi.
Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi (is he the guy who kills women with insufficient headcover?) on Monday announced that “the Islamic Republic’s response to the Israeli regime’s terrorist act would be in accordance with international law,” according to Mehr News.
The Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said the Zionists would regret assassinating Haniyeh.
Hot dog!
