Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, warned on Thursday that the situation in the Middle East could soon become the most dangerous it’s been in more than 50 years as tensions between Israel and Iran have reached a fever pitch.
Rubio’s comments come as Iran has threatened to launch an attack against Israel after an Israeli airstrike killed Mohammed Reza Zahedi, the top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria, last week as he met with other Iranian commanders and leaders from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
Zahedi allegedly played a “strategic role in forming and strengthening the resistance front as well as in planning and executing” Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack against Israel, according to a staunchly pro-IRGC political group.
“Iran wants to launch a large scale attack from their own territory against Israel,” Rubio posted on X. “Israel will respond instantly with an even more severe counterattack inside of Iran.”
“What happens next is the most dangerous Middle East moment since 1973,” the senator added.
In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a simultaneous coordinated surprise attack on Israel during Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
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U.S. officials have said that Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, was planning a “significant” attack against Israel.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that Iran was ready to strike but appeared to have delayed or changed its plans in response to threats from the U.S.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak echoed the U.S.’s support for Israel on Thursday, saying: “The threats from Iran are completely unacceptable and we, like the Americans, fully support Israel’s right to defend itself against that.”
“We have already highlighted Iran as a significant risk to regional security and we have always said that we will support Israel’s ability to defend itself and we are taking action ourselves to make sure we can protect the UK against threats from Iran,” he added.