(Dan Tri) – Information that Iran may retaliate against Israel within the next 24-48 hours causes oil prices to increase sharply.
The Iranian consulate building in Syria was destroyed after a suspected Israeli airstrike on April 1 (Photo: Reuters).
Bloomberg on April 10 quoted unnamed US officials saying that Iran could begin retaliatory attacks on Israel within the next 24-48 hours.
`A large-scale missile or drone attack is imminent,` Bloomberg quoted people familiar with US and Israeli sources and intelligence reports as saying.
According to this source, the attacks could be carried out directly by Iran or by allies such as Hezbollah forces.
The source added that the US is assisting Israel in planning and sharing intelligence information.
An anonymous US official said Washington is committed to helping Israel deal with any potential attack by Iran, including shooting down missiles aimed at Israel.
`We do not rule out the scenario of coordinating a response attack with Israel if they are attacked by Iran or its Iranian ally,` the official said.
Israel announced that it was ready to deal with Iran’s attack.
`If Iran’s attack originates from its territory, Israel will respond and attack targets in Iran,` the Israeli diplomat stated.
Arab newspaper Elaph News quoted an unnamed Western security official as saying on April 9 that Israel is training its pilots to raid `sensitive positions` in Iran, including targets.
Those targets could be the Arak heavy water reactor, the Bushehr nuclear power plant or the Gachin uranium mine, Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
Relations between the two countries escalated recently after Iran accused Israel of launching a missile attack and destroying the consulate building in the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1.
After the above incident, Iran announced a tough response to Israel, and warned that no Israeli embassy in the world was safe.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday that Israel had made a mistake and would be punished for the raid.
In the context of escalating Israel-Iran tensions, German airline Lufthansa announced the suspension of flights to and from Tehran `due to the current situation in the Middle East`.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) canceled all leave requests and began spoofing GPS signals, in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliation.
Escalating tensions caused oil prices on the world market to exceed 90 USD/barrel.