Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday that he believes Iran will retaliate, albeit on a limited scale, in response to Israel’s recent airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.
“They’re going to take action,” Esper said on CNN’s “The Source” with anchor Caitlan Collins. “They will feel the need to protect their dignity, maintain trust with their agents across the region, and truly respond to the demands of hardliners within the theocracy who want something done. ”
“But on the other hand, they don’t want this to be a broader war,” Esper continued. “They don’t want to escalate. They know that a major conflict between Israel and the United States, let alone Israel, would be disastrous for Iran. So they want the attack to be against Israel, I think it will be limited to targets of
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has announced that two leaders and five officers have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Syrian capital Damascus.
The United States also denies any involvement in Monday’s attack, but Israel’s action follows a surge of previous attacks on U.S. forces and bases in Iraq, and shows that Iran and Iranian-backed objectives are under threat to U.S. interests in the region. There are concerns that it will return to . And Syria calmed down after the start of the Israel-Hamas war by Iranian proxies.
News outlets such as NBC News and CNN have report U.S. officials said they were on “high alert” over fears of Iranian retaliation for the Damascus airstrike.
John Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if Iran doesn’t respond, it “looks weak to both its military and its allies.”
“But it seems to me that Iran is also very wary of an escalating spiral in its relations with the United States and Israel,” Alterman continued.
Hill contacted the White House.
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