PENTAGON said the top US commander for the Middle East was in Israel, to talk regarding security threats with the country’s military officials.
The visit comes amid concerns that Iran will retaliate following an Israeli strike killed seven members of Tehran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals, in Syria earlier this month.
Gen. Erik Kurilla was in Israel “to meet with key IDF leadership… (and) discuss current security threats in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told journalists.
Ryder said the trip was accelerated from its previously scheduled date “due to recent developments.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Israel “must be punished and will be punished,” while US President Joe Biden vowed to support “strongly” its key regional ally.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Thursday with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, who told the Pentagon chief that “a direct Iranian attack would require an appropriate Israeli response to Iran.”
The two “discussed readiness to face an Iranian attack on the state of Israel,” the country’s defense ministry said in a statement, adding that Gallant “stressed that the state of Israel will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory.” (AFP/Z-3)
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