Iran reportedly on 'high alert' amid fears of attack on nuclear sites
Iran has put its defense systems around its nuclear sites on high alert amid fears of an attack by Israel and the U.S., The Telegraph British newspaper said Tuesday.
The daily said that, according to two high-level government sources, Iran has been on high alert and that several additional air defense system launchers have been deployed.
Earlier this month, Iran revealed a new ballistic missile that it said was capable of travelling 1,700 kilometers. Iran's missiles, including this newest design, are capable of reaching its arch-foe Israel, which it targeted twice last year as the Gaza war spilled over.
"The development of defense capabilities and space technologies... aims to ensure that no country dares to attack Iranian territory," President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised address.
U.S. intelligence agencies have recently warned both the Biden and Trump administrations that Israel will likely attempt to strike facilities key to Iran’s nuclear program this year, the CNN said two weeks ago.
"I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it," U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with the New York Post.
Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel in April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic post. The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel — under pressure from Western countries to show restraint — responded with a limited strike it didn’t openly claim.
Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on the evening of Oct. 1, sending Israelis scrambling into bomb shelters but causing only minimal damage and a few injuries, in retaliation for attacks in recent months that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military. In retaliation, Israel pounded Iran with a series of airstrikes and said it targeted missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile sites and additional Iranian aerial capabilities.
