Iran Threatens Preemptive Strike Against Israel, United States

The deputy head of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces was quoted by a semi-official news agency as saying on Tuesday that if Iran felt that its interests were threatened they would launch a preemptive attack against their enemies, including Israel and the United States.

Mohammad Hejazi told Fars news agency,

“Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions,”

Senior United States defense officials have said that while they believe that Iran would respond if attacked they do not believe that Iran will act first.

Iran has been hit with crippling sanctions against its energy sector over the last few months. The country is financially choking and it appears that the sanctions are even spilling over into world oil prices. The Sanctions have raised the cost of oil to over $117 per barrel.

Israel and the United States have warned the Iranians that time was running out for a deal on their nuclear program. Iran insists its uranium enrichment efforts are for medical purposes and for generating electricity. The United States and Israel believe that Iran is planning on using the Uranium to build nuclear bombs.

Israel has in no way ruled out a military strike to stop the Iranian nuclear threat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel would not tolerate a nuclear Iran. Defense Minister Ehud Barack has hinted that if nothing changes Israel may be forced to attack Iran this spring.

Do you think Israel and the United States are going to attack Iran this year?