- Fears of Iran and Israel’s violence intensifying grow
- The US wants to avoid severe reprisals.
As Israel’s war cabinet prepared to meet for a third time on Wednesday to decide on a response, the US and its allies prepared new sanctions against Iran in response to its unprecedented attack on the country. The goal was to deter Israel from making a significant escalation.
Despite the fact that Saturday night’s attack resulted in no casualties and minimal damage because of Israel and its allies’ air defenses and countermeasures, it has raised concerns that violence stemming from the six-month-old Gaza conflict is spreading and that there may be a chance of an open conflict between Iran and Israel, longtime enemies.
Iran’s launch of over 300 missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israeli territory “will be met with a response,” according to Israel’s military chief of staff Herzi Halevi, although he did not provide any specifics.
The planned war cabinet meeting for Tuesday has been rescheduled for Wednesday, according to an unidentified Israeli government source.
In an attempt to deter Israel from launching a full-scale counterattack, the US and Europe announced tighter political and economic sanctions against Iran.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Tuesday that the US plans to impose new sanctions targeting Iran’s drone and missile program in the coming days and anticipates its allies will follow suit.
Earlier, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US would use sanctions, and work with allies, to keep disrupting Iran’s “malign and destabilising activity”
At a press conference in Washington, she stated that all options were on the table to stop Iran’s “terrorist financing” and that more sanctions against the country would likely be announced soon.
Speaking in Brussels following an emergency video conference of EU foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that the diplomatic service of the bloc would start examining requests from member states to increase sanctions against Iran.
According to Borrell, the proposal would broaden the scope of sanctions aimed at reducing the flow of Iranian drones to Russia to encompass missile supply as well as shipments to Iranian proxies in the Middle East.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed to be “leading a diplomatic attack” and wrote to thirty-two nations requesting that they impose sanctions on Iran’s missile program and join the United States in designating the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s dominant military force, as a terrorist organization.
‘Calm heads’
Iran claimed to have closed the case after launching the attack in retaliation for an Israeli-aligned airstrike on its Damascus embassy compound on April 1.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Joe Biden informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the country, which serves as Israel’s primary defense, would not take part in an Israeli counterattack.
In a call with Netanyahu on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told him that the Middle East was “a moment for calm heads to prevail” and that escalation in the region would only make things more unstable.
Yoko Kamikawa, the foreign minister of Japan, “strongly urged Israel to exercise restraint” in a Tuesday night call with Israel Kantz, her counterpart, according to a transcript released by Japan’s foreign ministry.
Many Iranians, who have already experienced economic hardship and stricter social and political regulations following significant protests in 2022–2023, are terrified of potential Israeli reprisals.
Clashes between Israel and groups affiliated with Iran that are based in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq have broken out since the start of the Gaza War in October.
Although it has routinely exchanged fire with the heavily armed Lebanese Hezbollah, Israel claimed that four of its soldiers were injured hundreds of meters inside Lebanese territory overnight. This marks the first known Israeli ground penetration into Lebanon since the Gaza war broke out.
Iran’s action was well received in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel started its campaign against Hamas, the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza and is supported by Iran, after Hamas launched a retaliatory campaign against Israel on October 7, according to Israeli figures, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 253 others.
