Israel and its embassies brace for Iranian attack

Israel is preparing for attacks on its embassies and even the possibility of war with Iran, after Iranian authorities warned Israel would “not go unpunished” for an airstrike that killed two senior Iranian commanders last week.

“The embassies of the Zionist regime are no longer safe,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by Iran's ISNA news agency. He said Tehran viewed confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right”.

The news agency also published a graphic that it claims showcases nine types of Iranian missiles capable of hitting Israel.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack but has argued that the target was a “military building of Quds forces” — a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the US designates as a terrorist organisation.

“This is no consulate, and this is no embassy,” Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told CNN.

The IDF has bolstered its air defence array and had called up reservists, as the country girded for a potential Iranian response to the strike, either directly or through its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah.

“I won’t be surprised if Iran fires directly at Israel,” former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin told Israel’s Channel 12, explaining that a January missile strike carried out by Iran on neighbouring Pakistan set a precedent for such action.