Five world leaders have urged Iran not to attack

The Israeli military was at “peak readiness” Monday as it girded for an expected retaliatory attack from Iran and its regional proxies; the U.S. military was moving a guided-missile submarine into the region; and a White House spokesperson said U.S. intelligence suggested that it was “increasingly likely” that the attack on Israel would come within days.

At the White House, John Kirby, the national security spokesperson, told reporters that U.S. intelligence agencies shared the Israeli view that the anticipated attack was something that “could happen as soon as this week.”

With tensions high, President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Monday about efforts to de-escalate tensions and broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, Kirby said.

The European leaders and Biden then issued a joint statement expressing support for efforts to get Hamas and Israel to agree to a cease-fire and urging Iran to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel.” Iran has pledged to retaliate after the assassination of a top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, the capital, on July 31, a killing that it attributed to Israel. Israel has not claimed the attack.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz both made calls to the newly elected president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, urging him to avoid a military escalation, according to their offices.

Kirby noted that the United States expected discussions on a cease-fire to resume Thursday — a date Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar set last week for talks on a “final” cease-fire proposal. Egypt and Qatar have been mediating the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.

“We fully expect that to move forward, and they need to move forward,” Kirby said, although he conceded that if Iran attacked Israel in the intervening days, the discussions might have to be delayed.

The chief spokesperson for the Israeli military, Daniel Hagari, said at a news conference clearly intended to reassure a jittery Israeli public that the country’s forces had increased patrols by warplanes over neighboring Lebanon — the base for Hezbollah — and had continued to strike targets there every day “to remove threats.”

“We are prepared at peak readiness in offense and defense, and we will act according to the directives of the government,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesperson, Gen. Patrick Ryder, said Sunday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered a guided-missile submarine, the Georgia, to the Middle East. He noted that Austin had already ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the region.

The Israeli military said in a statement that Herzi Halevi, the military’s chief of staff, had held a situational assessment Monday with the head of the intelligence directorate and other military leaders, focusing on “the continuation of a high level of readiness and efforts to prepare for offense and defense.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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