Iranupdated 30m ago3 min read
Israel Security Cabinet Orders Strike Preparations as Iran Warns Expanded Retaliation
“We may even target some American military bases in European countries.”
“every military base involved in the aggression, from West Asia to Europe, will be a legitimate target for Iran’s lethal strikes.”
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Israel's security cabinet ordered heightened military preparations for a possible strike on Iran. Iran warns it would expand retaliation and target US bases abroad if attacked.
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Israel readiness, Iran warns
Israel’s security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the military to step up preparations for a possible strike on Iran, as Tehran warned it would expand the war beyond the region if attacked. Public broadcaster KAN said the directives issued by the security cabinet could lead Israel to carry out activities that could trigger a war, and KAN said the directives were made public after opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot told Netanyahu not to deploy the military “without a direct and immediate threat” until the next government is formed.
Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned, “If the US launches another war against Iran, every military base involved in the aggression, from West Asia to Europe, will be a legitimate target for Iran’s lethal strikes.” Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Al Jazeera that the Strait of Hormuz will “never return” to its status prior to the US-Israel war on Iran and said “the ball is now in the American court.”
Bases in Europe, US moves
Mohsen Rezaei told Al Mayadeen that if the United States attacks again, Iran would not limit itself to nearby bases and “may even target some American military bases in European countries.”
The threat prompted the United States to move military aircraft from RAF Mildenhall in eastern England, and a U.S. official told NBC News that several aircraft had left as the security posture there increased under “enhanced force protection measures.”
NBC News reported that at least eight air refueling tankers and three Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft left RAF Mildenhall, with some tankers relocated to air bases in Germany and Spain and one moved to the area of Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland.
The U.S. European Command official told NBC News that U.S. Air Force aircraft rotate between installations and operating locations for a variety of reasons, and the U.S. spokesperson said the administration would address concerns by “moving people away from the threat,” according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Negotiations, blockade, oil
In Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said Trump and Marco Rubio were “effectively” saying “large-scale military engagement is over,” and Fisher said the “key issue for this White House is always to be in a position where Trump can declare victory.” The US Central Command said U.S. forces “continue to work around the clock” to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for commercial shipping while strictly enforcing the “ironclad” naval blockade against Iran, and the same report said oil prices rose about 1 percent on Wednesday after Tehran rejected a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium to a third country.
The Guardian reported that the US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent relocated from his home in the Washington area to a military base after an Iranian threat against his life, and the report said Bessent had spearheaded a US push to cripple Iran’s economy through a web of sanctions. A US Treasury spokesperson told the Guardian that the secretary “will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats” and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast and maintaining the blockade, which the spokesperson said is “collapsing Iran’s economy.”