US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that “nothing will happen” on Thursday regarding Israel’s response to Iran after its ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.
Biden expressed his opposition to launching an attack on Iranian nuclear sites by Israel as a response to the Iranian missile attack.
Biden added to reporters on Wednesday that more sanctions would be imposed on Iran, indicating that he would soon speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel pledged to respond to the Iranian attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran had made a “serious mistake.”
Israeli officials said that their country will begin a “strong response” to the Iranian missile attack that targeted Israel, on Tuesday evening, within days, and this may include targeting oil installations and other Iranian strategic sites.
In their statements to the American website Axios, on Wednesday, officials warned of the possibility of the outbreak of a comprehensive regional war, as Iran threatened that if Israel decided to respond to its missile attack, it would direct other strikes against it.
Tehran considers these missile strikes a “response” to the killing of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, on its territory, and the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli raid on Beirut.
If Iran decides to carry out attacks again following a possible Israeli response, officials told Axios that “all options will be on the table, including strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.”
On Wednesday, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for a decisive strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, the day after the barrage of missiles that Tehran launched towards Israel.
Bennett said on the “X” platform, hours after the attack on Israel, on Tuesday, “We must act now to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and its central energy facilities and to paralyze this terrorist regime in a way that eliminates it.”
“We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed, Iran is exposed,” Bennett wrote.
In a separate statement, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Iran must “pay a heavy and heavy price” after the attack.
Lapid, who served as prime minister for a short period in 2022, said, “Tehran knows that Israel is coming. The response must be strong and must send a categorical message to the axis of terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and Iran itself.”
Iran is accused of seeking to develop atomic weapons even though the Islamic Republic insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
It is known that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, but has never acknowledged it.
Tuesday’s attack was the second direct Iranian strike on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April that came in response to a bloody Israeli raid that targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
