Israel Vows to Retaliate Against Aggression as US Ready to Decide on Iran Deal
© AFP 2018 / Don Emmert
Major General Mohammad Baqeri, the chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, has pledged to respond in kind to a potential aggression against Iran.
Without directly referring to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that any country which plans to target Israel should know that Tel Aviv will retaliate.
The Jerusalem Post cited Netanyahu as saying that a potential enemy threatening to destroy Israel will encounter an impenetrable "iron wall."
"Our struggle is waged while maintaining a purity of arms, and in a continuous attempt to prevent, as much as possible, harming innocent civilians. There is no more ethical army than the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces]," Netanyahu noted.
In a separate development, Mohammad Baqeri, Iran's military chief of staff, made it plain that Tehran is poised and ready to respond in kind against a possible act of aggression against the Islamic Republic, according to the Press TV news agency.
"If the enemy casts a covetous eye on our interests or conducts [even] a slight act of aggression, the Islamic Republic will give an appropriate response at an appropriate time," Baqeri underscored.
The two men's statements came after US President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post that on Tuesday he would announce his decision on whether Washington would remain in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement governing Iran's nuclear program.
Trump has repeatedly voiced his dissatisfaction with the JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal; in late January 2018, he intensified his rhetoric, asking US Congress to grapple with the flaws in the "terrible Iran nuclear deal" and threatening to pull out of it otherwise.
Earlier last week, Trump blamed former US Secretary of State John Kerry for engaging in illegal diplomacy with Iranian officials in order to try to salvage the agreement.
Russia, for its part, signaled a willingness to stick to the JCPOA provisions as long as other signatories do. Moscow has repeatedly underlined that it does not believe that the deal needs to be changed.
The foreign ministers of Germany, the United Kingdom and France have, for their part, issued a joint statement saying that their countries will stay in the JCPOA even if the United States pulls out of it.
The JCPOA was signed by the EU, Iran and the P5+1 group, including Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany, on July 14, 2015. The agreement stipulates Tehran pledging not to obtain a nuclear weapon in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
© AP PHOTO / PETROS GIANNAKOURIS
On Sunday, Israeli media cited defense officials as saying that Tel Aviv is bracing for possible missile strikes by Iran from sites inside Syria. According to security personnel, Iran may stage a retaliatory missile attack against military targets in northern Israel after last month's strike on the T-4 base in Syria.
On April 9, two Israeli F-15 jet fighters attacked the T-4 base, killing seven Iranians operating in the country, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The strike came in response to allegations that an explosive drone was sent into Israeli air space from the base.
Tel Aviv claims that Iran allegedly deployed its military forces to Syria that it plans to use against Israel. Tehran denies the allegations, claiming that it is only sending military advisors to the Arab Republic.
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