Biden on Israeli response to Iran: Nothing will happen today
Biden on Israeli response to Iran: Nothing will happen today
2024-10-03 07:45
Shafaq News/ US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that “nothing will happen” today regarding Israel’s response to Iran after its ballistic missile attack on Israel last Tuesday.
Biden had expressed his opposition to an attack on Iranian nuclear sites by Israel in response to the Iranian missile attack.
Biden told reporters on Wednesday that more sanctions would be imposed on Iran, noting that he would soon speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel has vowed to respond to the Iranian attack, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Iran had made a “serious mistake.”
Israeli officials said their country would launch a “strong response” to the Iranian missile attack that targeted Israel on Tuesday evening within days, and that this could include targeting oil facilities and other Iranian strategic sites.
Officials warned in their statements to the American website “Axios” on Wednesday of the possibility of the outbreak of a comprehensive regional war, as Iran threatened that if Israel decided to respond to its missile attack, it would launch other strikes against it.
Tehran considers the missile strikes a “response” to the killing of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli raid on Beirut.
If Iran decides to carry out attacks again following a potential Israeli response, officials told Axios that then “all options would be on the table, including strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on Wednesday for a decisive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, following a barrage of missiles launched by Tehran towards Israel.
“We must act now to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and its central energy facilities and to cripple this terrorist regime in a way that will destroy it,” Bennett said on the X platform hours after the attack on Israel on Tuesday.
“We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed, Iran is exposed,” Bennett wrote.
In a separate statement, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Iran must “pay a heavy and significant price” for the attack.
“Tehran knows that Israel is coming,” said Lapid, who briefly served as prime minister in 2022. “The response must be strong and must send a decisive message to the axis of terror in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and Iran itself.”
Iran is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, although the Islamic Republic insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Israel is known to possess nuclear weapons, but has never acknowledged this.
Tuesday’s attack was Iran’s second direct strike on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli raid on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
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