>Israel, U.S. Prepare for Severe Iranian Retaliation
>Israel and the U.S. are preparing for an unpredictable Iranian retaliatory strike on Israel as soon as this weekend, as Tehran stonewalls diplomats trying to prevent a regional Middle East war.
>Israel said Friday its military was on high alert, while U.S. officials worked to get military assets and regional partners ready to stop another attack that some fear could be broader and more complex than an Iranian assault in April.
>In that attack, Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, but only after telegraphing its response to diplomats ahead of time and giving Israel and the U.S. time to prepare.
>This time, Israel and its allies are operating in a vacuum.
>U.S. and Arab diplomats working to head off a spiral of violence are getting an angry silence from Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, which are preparing to retaliate for killings in Tehran and Beirut. An Iranian diplomat, briefed by his government, said attempts by various countries to convince Tehran not to escalate had been and would be fruitless given Israel’s recent attacks.
>“There is no point. Israel crossed all the red lines,” the diplomat said. “Our response will be swift and heavy.”
>Iran and Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group like Hamas, still want to avoid an all-out war and are trying to calibrate their response, people familiar with their thinking said.
>The combination of antagonists this time heightens the risks compared with the face-off between Iran and Israel in April, said Helima Croft, a geopolitical analyst at Canadian bank RBC and a former U.S. security official.
>“At the very least, the events of the last few days could trigger a dangerous fog-of-war dynamic where red lines are imperceptible and the risk of serious miscalculation is magnified,” Croft said.
>When Iran was about to launch its massive barrage in April to avenge the suspected Israeli assassination of one of its senior generals, it telegraphed the missile and drone attack so clearly that radio and television stations in Israel were counting down the hours people had left to get home and into shelters.
>“They wanted everyone to know,” a U.S. official said.
>But not this time, the official said.
https://archive.is/kepiH>US sending more fighter jets and warships to Mideast amid threats from Iran-led axis
>Austin is ordering the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which is in the Gulf of Oman but scheduled to come home later this summer. That decision suggests the Pentagon has decided to keep a carrier consistently in the region as a deterrent against Iran at least until next year.
>The US has had a consistent warship presence there and in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including two Navy destroyers, the USS Roosevelt and the USS Bulkeley, as well as the USS Wasp and the USS New York.
>In addition, a US official said that two US Navy destroyers that are currently in the Middle East will be heading north up the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean Sea.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-sending-more-fighter-jets-and-warships-to-mideast-amid-threats-from-iran-led-axis