The head of the Lebanese military group “Hizbollah“ Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier this week marked a “turning point” in the current Middle Eastern crisis, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
On Monday, the Israeli strike in Damascus killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including a high-ranking commander of the elite “Quds“ Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. Iran threatened to respond.
The Tehran-backed group “Hezbollah” said it supports Iran's right to “punish“ Israel and during a televised address today, Nasrallah said that the answer is forthcoming.
„Be sure, be convinced that the Iranian response to the attack on the consulate in Damascus is certainly coming to Israel,” he declared.
Israel is preparing for a possible retaliatory attack. Leave has been suspended in all combat units and additional fighters have been mobilized in air defense units.
Speaking to Israeli soldiers at an air base today, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant said his country attacks its enemies whenever and wherever it chooses.
„It could be in Damascus, it could be in Beirut. The enemy is being hit hard everywhere and is therefore looking for a way to respond. "We are ready with a multi-layered defense," he said.
So far, Iran has avoided getting directly involved in the crisis by supporting attacks on Israeli and US targets by its Middle East allies.
Diplomats and analysts say Iran's leadership does not want a full-scale war with Israel or the United States that would threaten its power and would prefer to continue using its allies in the region to carry out tactical strikes against its adversaries.