(Reuters) – Iran will refrain from starting a war but will “respond firmly” to all attempts at intimidation, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday, the day after the United States announced preparations attacks against Iranian sites in Iraq and Syria.
Washington’s announced response to the death of three American soldiers last Saturday in Jordan is fueling speculation.
The three soldiers were killed and around 40 people injured in an armed drone attack on their base last Saturday. The United States established that the device was of Iranian manufacture.
According to CBS News, which cites American officials, the United States has approved plans for strikes in Iraq and Syria against several targets, including Iranian personnel based in these countries.
“We will not start a war, but if someone wants to intimidate us, they will get a firm response,” President Raïssi said in a televised speech.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have resolved to withdraw several of their officers from Syria following a series of deadly targeted strikes by the Israeli army, according to five sources familiar with the situation.
The Iranian regime’s elite corps – officially military “advisers” serving the Damascus regime – deployed to Syrian territory ten years ago in support of President Bashar al-Assad in the armed conflict that has lasted since. 2011.
However, since last December, more than half a dozen of its members, including a senior Iranian intelligence official, have been killed in Israeli attacks.
(French version Dagmarah Mackos)
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