US officials claim that the Israeli military “badly miscalculated” how Iran would react to the deadly airstrike against its consulate in Syria that killed a top Revolutionary Guard general — though Jerusalem has yet to respond to the report, which critics point out relies on few sources.
Americans only learned of Israel’s plan, which was months in the making, to bomb the Iranian complex in Damascus on April 1 just moments before it was carried out, killing Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, among other senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, according to multiple US officials and a senior Israeli official speaking anonymously to the New York Times.
Notably, Israel’s military has not responded to the claim, which critics note only cites one anonymous senior Israeli official.
Those US and Israeli sources told the newspaper that the Israelis initially did not think Iran would lash out in response to the airstrike.
And even after it became clear that Iran would retaliate, both Israel and the US, its closest ally, reportedly thought the response would be on a limited scale.
Instead, Tehran on Saturday unleashed an unprecedented barrage of some 350 suicide drones and missiles at the Jewish state, the vast majority of which were shot down by Israel and its allies.
In public, Biden administration officials expressed their full-throated support for Israel, but privately, they were said to be enraged that Jerusalem would attack Iran without Washington’s input, according to the Times’ reporting.
Israel had begun planning its attack on the Iranian consulate two months earlier, with the goal of assassinating Zahedi, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, reported The Times.
The operation was reportedly green-lit by Israel’s War Cabinet on March 22, according to internal Israel documents, which also listed an assessment of possible responses from Iran.
None of them anticipated responses. Iran launched a large-scale missile and- rone attack, which ended up injuring a 7-year-old Bedouin girl but otherwise caused minimal damage — thanks to Israel’s missile defense systems and the help of its allies, including the US.
In hindsight, the Israelis admitted that they had severely underestimated the ramifications of their airstrike on the Iranian consulate, the Times reported, according to US and Israeli officials.
Shortly after the airstrike on Damascus, Iran conveyed a message to the US through a Swiss intermediary – the US and Iran do not have formal diplomatic relations — that it viewed Washington as accountable for the act of aggression.
The US reportedly sent a message back to Iran that it played no part in the attack.
Separately, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to complain that the airstrike on the Iranian consulate put US forces stationed in the region in harm’s way and with no time to prepare for a possible retaliation, according to US officials speaking to the outlet.
The Biden Administration did not think it could talk Iran down from retaliating against Israel at all, but there was a flurry of diplomatic activity behind the scenes involving multiple countries to try to limit the scope and scale of Tehran’s response, according to The Times.
In the wake of the Iranian attack, the US and European Union countries have been pleading with Israel to show restraint in its response in a bid to avoid further escalation in the region amid the ongoing war with Hamas.
President Biden, who said Wednesday that his government’s commitment to defending Israel was “ironclad” nevertheless warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would take no part in any counteroffensive against Iran.
Netanyahu on Wednesday brushed the calls for moderation aside, declaring that Israel will make its own decision about how to respond to Iran.
“The state of Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself,” the PM said in a meeting with his Cabinet.
Netanyahu made his remarks just hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that even the “tiniest invasion” of its territory would lead to a “massive and harsh” response.
