Israel will respond to Iran based on national interest – Netanyahu

Israel will listen to the US but make final decisions based on its national interest, the Israeli prime minister’s office said, as speculation over its response to a major Iranian missile attack continues.

The brief overnight statement was issued in response to a Washington Post story which said Benjamin Netanyahu had told the US he was willing to target military sites in Iran – rather than nuclear or oil facilities.

Citing two officials, the Post said Netanyahu made the comments during a phone call with US President Joe Biden last Wednesday, when they discussed Israel’s intended retaliation.

Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October. Most of the projectiles were intercepted, Israel’s military said.

At the time, Netanyahu said Iran had made a “big mistake” and would “pay for it”.

The overnight Israeli statement, sent alongside a link to the Washington Post article, said: “We listen to the American government’s thoughts, but will make our final decisions based on Israel’s national security needs.”

According to an anonymous official quoted in the Post, Israel’s retaliatory strike would be designed to avoid the appearance of “political interference” in the upcoming US presidential election, which is less than a month away.

Analysts have said a hit on Iranian oil facilities could push up oil prices, and therefore affect the polls, which currently suggest a close race between Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

The price of crude oil shot up 5% at the beginning of the month, immediately after President Biden spoke about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil infrastructure.

The US has appeared to be trying to limit Israel’s response to Iran.

Biden has said the US does not support any potential strike on Iranian nuclear sites – a course of action touted by some in Israel, including former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett.

And on 4 October, Biden went further, signalling the US would also oppose an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities.

“If I were in their shoes, I would be thinking about other alternatives than striking Iranian oil fields,” he said during a news conference.

Israel has not officially said how it intends to respond to Iran’s October missile attack – the second in six months – but Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said last week its reaction would be “deadly, precise and above all surprising”.

“They will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” Gallant said.

Iran has, in turn, said it will not let any attack by Israel go unanswered.

Meanwhile, the US has said it will help bolster Israel’s air defences, by deploying a high-altitude anti-missile system.

The Pentagon said that the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) deployment underscored the US’s “ironclad” commitment “to the defence of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran”.

Iran said its October missile barrage was a response to Israel’s assassinations of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer in Beirut, and of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel has dramatically escalated its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in recent weeks, carrying out deadly air strikes predominantly in southern and eastern Lebanon, and also in the capital, Beirut.

Before that, Israel and Hezbollah had been trading cross-border fire on a near daily basis since last October, when Hezbollah began firing into Israel which it said was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

It had said it would stop firing if there was a ceasefire in Gaza.