Iran’s long-awaited (and feared) response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas military leader Ismail Haniyeh on its own territory has Israel and, as of this Saturday, the United States on high alert.
Washington is preparing to send more aircraft, more combat ships and more anti-aircraft defenses to the area in the event of having to help Israel defend itself from an Iranian retaliatory attack more virulent and less telegraphed than the one carried out by Tehran last April.
This new military deployment was agreed upon by the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who confirmed through Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Sigh the decision to reinforce the military presence in the region in view of the “possibility of a regional escalation by Iran and its allies.”
“Secretary Austin has ordered adjustments to the U.S. military posture to improve the protection of U.S. forces, Increase support for Israel’s defense and ensure that the US is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” Sigh said in the statement reported by Efe.
The fact that the announcement is being made publicly is, on the one hand, an explicit message of support for Netanyahu after the distancing that has been experienced in recent months with the White House, and which was also reflected in the recent meetings of the Israeli Prime Minister with both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the White House.
But it is also a warning to Iran in an attempt to dissuade it from a military response to an attack on its own soil that could increase the level of violence in the region, already worrying enough with the increase in clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Although the Pentagon has not confirmed what the increased military deployment will entail, it did say that it will send an additional fighter squadron to the region, as well as more warships. The spokeswoman also said that, if necessary, it will send additional units of ground-based missile defense systems.
The Pentagon announcement comes after President Joe Biden discussed “new military deployments” to protect Israel from threats of attack from Iran in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tensions in the region have risen after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threaten Israeli territory with revenge for the murder by the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was on an official visit to Tehran.
In turn, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah already announced in a speech on Thursday that he would respond strongly to the bombing that this week killed his top commander Fuad Shukr, an Iranian military adviser and five civilians on the outskirts of Beirut, where nearly 80 other people were also injured.