US moves MORE forces into Middle East to prepare for ‘imminent’ Iranian attack on Israel: Pentagon sends anti-missile aircraft carrier to Red Sea as warning to Tehran

The US has moved more forces into the Middle East to prepare for what officials believe could be an ‘imminent’ attack by Iran on Israel, which could spark a full-scale war.

The Pentagon is beefing up its presence in the region and the USS Dwight Eisenhower has been dispatched to the Red Sea in a warning to Tehran and to protect US personnel if violence spreads, multiple reports suggest.

US officials fear hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles could be used in retaliation for an April 1 attack on a building next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retaliation in the wake of the Damascus attack, for which Tel-Aviv has yet to claim responsibility.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond with force to any attack by Iran, leaving tensions in the Middle East on a knife edge.

Defense officials said Friday they are moving “additional assets to the area,” hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem closed its staff.

The USS Dwight Eisenhower would be able to intercept missiles and drones launched by Iran.

The White House on Friday would not go so far as to say an attack was ‘imminent’, instead calling the threat ‘viable’.

“We still consider the potential threat from Iran here to be real, viable, certainly credible, and we’re watching it as closely as we can,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday.

Kirby added that the US was in ‘constant communication with our Israeli counterparts to ensure that they can defend themselves against this type of attack.’

He added that “forced changes in posture” had been made to ensure the US is “properly prepared” for any Iranian attack, but declined to elaborate.

The NSC spokesman gave no details on the potential timing of such an attack, amid warnings that it could happen within the next 48 hours.

“I really don’t want to get into armchair quarterbacking in a public way in terms of the conversations we’re having or what we’re seeing on the intelligence picture,” Kirby said.

On Thursday, the US Embassy in Jerusalem did not explicitly mention Iran, but issued a warning to government employees.

The US Embassy in Jerusalem has imposed travel restrictions on diplomats living in Israel as officials fear an Iranian attack could come with the help of 100 drones and dozens of missiles

Iranians burn an Israeli flag during a demonstration marking Quds Day and the funeral of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria last week

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside of the greater Tel Aviv, … Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” the security alert read.

The April 1 attack in Damascus killed two senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and five other officers, Iran said.

Israel has yet to publicly claim responsibility.

This is what the Washington Post writes on Thursday that senior Pentagon officials were frustrated that the US did not get a heads up from Israel before conducting an airstrike on the Iranian site.

A missile is fired during a military exercise at an undisclosed location in southern Iran, in this handout photo taken on Jan. 19, 2024

Iran warned arch-enemy Israel on April 2 that it will punish an airstrike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals

Three unnamed U.S. officials told the newspaper that Defense Secretary Lloyd Ausin and other senior defense officials believed Israel should have informed the Pentagon ahead of the strike because of the strike’s implications for U.S. soldiers in the region.

Had the United States gotten a heads up, the Pentagon would have been able to increase defense capabilities to withstand Iranian retaliation, the sources said.

If Israel and Iran engage in a full-scale war, the consequences could be devastating.

Professor Gerald Steinberg, an expert in conflict management and founder of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, said a potential war between Iran and Israel would be both futile and destructive.

“They are on the verge of a confrontation similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 between Washington and Moscow. Both countries can do massive damage to the other, but neither can “win,” he said.

Wyn Bowen, professor of international security at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies, told DailyMail.com that Iran is unlikely to seek to directly attack targets on Israeli soil, so as not to risk an uncontrollable military response from Israel and its main ally, US.

But he also warned that ‘the Iranian leadership is under considerable pressure to respond robustly’ to the consulate attack, suggesting that a direct conflict, albeit unlikely, must be considered.