Tehran: Iran has said it is prepared to strike Israeli infrastructure and American energy facilities across the region if it is attacked, amid reports that Washington and Tel Aviv may be lining up fresh military action against the Islamic Republic, ANI reported.
A senior Iranian security official told Tasnim News Agency on Friday that Western media reports about possible strikes on Iranian infrastructure amounted to “a kind of madness”.
According to Tasnim, the official said Tehran had drawn up extensive retaliatory plans involving attacks on critical sites in Israel and on US energy assets across the Middle East, and that it stood ready to carry them out if provoked.
Iran’s armed forces, he said, had already shown they could strike back effectively during the 40-day war and in the clashes that followed.
The warning comes as speculation grows over a possible escalation after reports suggested US President Donald Trump had ordered preparations for renewed strikes on Iranian targets.
The Wall Street Journal said on Friday, citing US officials, that Trump had ordered a new round of strikes that could start as soon as this weekend, and that he had warned Tehran it risked severe military retaliation unless it came back to the negotiating table.
At a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, Trump signalled that operations were imminent, saying the United States would be “hitting them very hard” and adding that he believed Iran would eventually reach the point where it “just can’t take it anymore”.
The increasingly sharp exchanges point to deepening tensions between Washington and Tehran, and have stoked fears that any further military action could broaden the regional conflict and endanger key energy assets and strategic infrastructure across the Middle East.
