Secretary of State Tony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 countries on Sunday that an attack by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel could start as early as Monday, three sources briefed on the call tell Axios.
Blinken convened the conference call to coordinate with close U.S. allies and try to generate last-minute diplomatic pressure on Iran and Hezbollah to minimize their retaliation as much as possible. He stressed that limiting the impact of their strikes is the best chance to prevent all-out war.
Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah have vowed to respond to the assassinations by Israel of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
The sources said Blinken stressed that the U.S. believes Iran and Hezbollah will both retaliate.
But unlike the Iranian attack against Israel on April 13 — in which Iran launched nearly 350 attack drones and missiles toward Israel, and Israel, the U.S. and their allies worked together to intercept most of them — Blinken said it’s unclear what form the retaliation will take.
Read more at Axios.com