Israeli minister warns of attacks on Israel if tensions between US, Iran escalate

Continued tensions between the U.S. and Iran could lead to an Iranian attack on Israel, an Israeli foreign minister warned Sunday, according to Reuters.

“If there’s some sort of conflagration between Iran and the United States, between Iran and its neighbors, I’m not ruling out that they will activate Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad from Gaza, or even that they will try to fire missiles from Iran at the State of Israel,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel’s Ynet TV Sunday, referencing militant groups backed by Iran and active in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

The U.S./Iran standoff has intensified in recent weeks, with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announcing the nation will scale back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal without withdrawing entirely. National security advisor John Bolton announced last Sunday the U.S. would deploy a bomber task force and carrier strike group to the region, citing “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran.

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime,” Bolton added, but intends to send “a clear and unmistakable message … that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, the first time the label has been applied to a governmental entity. Iran responded by applying the same designation to all U.S. troops in the Middle East.