How Israel could respond to Iran’s drone and missile assault

Although the US has said that it would not take part in any retaliatory strike from Israel in response to Iran’s largely thwarted salvo over the weekend, the Biden administration’s “ironclad” support for the country could still prompt Israel to launch a direct attack on Iranian soil – with potentially disastrous results.

As rank after rank of soldiers marched by, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi surveyed his troops and spoke of victory. In a speech delivered to members of the country’s armed forces on a parade marking Iran’s annual Army Day on Wednesday, Raisi said that the sight of Iranian missiles crawling across the night sky towards Israel just days before had “brought down the glory of the Zionist regime”. Although their attack on their adversary had been limited, he said, the “tiniest invasion” by Israel in response would be met with no mercy. “Nothing would remain,” he said.

But Raisi was not speaking from the parade’s normal site on a highway south of Tehran. Instead, the parade had been relocated without explanation to a military barracks north of the capital. Nor was the parade being broadcast live, as it had been in past years. Despite all the military hardware on display, it seemed Iran, too, was keeping one eye fixed on the skies, anxious to see how Israel would respond.

“We will make our decisions ourselves,” he said after a meeting with the ministers.

Crossing a line

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