After Biden’s warning on the phone
Netanyahu’s war cabinet hesitates to respond to Iran
April 15, 2024, 4:24 a.m
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After the major Iranian attack on Israel, the government in Jerusalem reserves the right to react harshly. During a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, US President Biden urged moderation. Now the war cabinet is adjourning after several options are on the table.
According to media reports, Israel’s leadership has not yet decided how to respond to the Iranian attack at the weekend. The war cabinet did not make a decision on how to proceed during more than three hours of deliberations on Sunday afternoon, the Times of Israel newspaper reported. Further talks should be held in the coming days, the news portal “Axios” also reported, citing an Israeli official. Several options for a possible Israeli retaliation were discussed at the meeting.
On Sunday night, Iran directly attacked its declared arch-enemy Israel for the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic. Israel’s army reported around 300 rockets, drones and cruise missiles, almost all of which were intercepted. Iran portrayed the operation, called “Sincere Promise,” as retaliation for the killing of high-ranking officers in Syria. On April 1, two brigadier generals were killed in a suspected Israeli-led airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus.
Biden made his position “very clear”
Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told a special session of the UN Security Council that the Islamic Republic had exercised its right to self-defense: “These actions were necessary and proportionate.” Israel’s representative Gilad Erdan countered that Iran had “crossed every red line” and that his country now had the right to retaliate. Iran’s National Security Council warned Israel against a military response to the retaliatory strikes.
According to a statement from Washington, US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carefully consider a possible strike against Iran and its consequences. In the phone call between the two on Saturday evening (local time), Biden made it “very clear” to Netanyahu that they needed to “think carefully and strategically about the risks of escalation,” said a high-ranking US government official.