Iran Military Chief Threatens Retaliation for Israeli Action

Promises a 'fundamental response' to Israeli actions

In comments to reporters on Sunday, Iranian military Chief of Staff Gen. Mohammed Bagheri warned Israel should not believe that it can carry out attacks on targets inside Syria without repercussions, promising efforts to be taken soon to make them come to their senses.

Talk of retaliation comes in the wake of incidents in the past several days seeing Israel attack a number of targets in south Syria, and a presumptive Israeli attack on an Iranian fuel tanker just off the Syrian coast.

Gen. Bagheri suggested retaliation might come from proxies within the resistance, saying that he is confident that they will give Israel “a fundamental response.” The Saturday attack on the tanker killed at least three, and appears meant to prevent Iran from delivering fuel to war-torn Syria.

Iran was already talking up revenge after Israel’s recent sabotage of Natanz, and this is only adding to the always high tensions between the two nations. Though Iran doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize ongoing nuclear talks, there is a clear push among military personnel not to let Israel attack with impunity.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.