Tel Aviv: In a clear indication of an escalation of the stand-off between the US and Iran, nearly a dozen US Air Force (USAF) F-22 Raptors have landed in Israel, ANI has quoted The Times of Israel as reporting on Wednesday.
These fifth generation stealth fighter jets, built by Lockheed Martin, are flown exclusively by the USAF.
The US has been building up military assets in West Asia amidst heightened tensions with Iran. Analysts believe that the situation is fragile and a war could erupt between the two countries, even as negotiations between the US and Iran are ongoing over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The sides are due to meet on Thursday in Geneva for a third round of talks.
According to the Israeli daily, the fighter jets were spotted taking off from the Lakenheath airbase in the United Kingdom on February 24 morning before they flew to Israel.
A US official has also confirmed that the fifth-generation aircraft landed at an air force base in South Israel, American media outlets reported.
The fighters flew with their transponders deactivated but were accompanied by refueling tankers with their transponders on, ABC said.
There are some officials in Israel who believe that a US strike on Iran is inevitable. An official quoted by Channel 12 news on Tuesday said that a diplomatic resolution
to the conflict would be the “surprise of the year,” as per The Times of Israel report.
The Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyzes military and government flight activity, has reported dozens of fighter jets – including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, and F-16s heading to the Middle East over the last few days, the Israeli daily has reported.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump in his address to the joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday night said that Iran is developing long-range missiles that can reach US territory.
“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” Trump said during his first State of the Union address of his second term.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy-but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror to have a nuclear weapon,” he told Congress.
Trump also spoke of “Operation Midnight Hammer”, the US airstrikes last year against Iran’s nuclear facilities during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program-yet they continue, and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions,” Trump said.
According to him, Iran wants to make a deal to avoid further US strikes, but has yet to commit to never making a nuclear weapon.
Ahead of his address, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed senior members of the House and Senate on Tuesday about the administration’s military buildup against Iran.