The Israeli government gave the Biden administration short notice before killing a high-level Iranian general in Syria on Monday, according to Axios.
Israel launched targeted airstrikes on a compound near the Iranian embassy in Syria and killed several members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), including a senior general of the Quds Force, according to Reuters. U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed that the Biden administration was only informed minutes in advance by Israel of the strike, and Israel did not wait for permission to launch, according to Axios. (RELATED: Biden Admin Scrambles To Tell Tehran It Had ‘No Involvement’ On Israeli Strike Against Iranian Generals: REPORT)
The notice the Biden administration received about the strike was only given once Israeli fighter jets were en route to the strike point, a U.S. official told Axios. The Biden administration also wasn’t given many details about the planned strike, including that it would be near the Iranian embassy.
Rescue workers search in the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy a day after an air strike in Damascus on April 2, 2024. Iran warned arch foe Israel on April 2 that it will punish an air strike that killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals, at its consular annex in Damascus. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)
The strike took place before a virtual meeting between an Israeli delegation and State Department Secretary Antony Blinken alongside White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, according to Axios. The meeting aimed to address Israel’s upcoming plans to launch a ground assault against Hamas in Rafah — the southernmost part of Gaza — which the Biden administration doesn’t currently support.
Israel’s plan to strike IRGC targets in Syria was not discussed during the hours-long meeting on Monday, according to Axios.
The Biden administration went “directly” to Iran shortly after the attacks and told them it “had no involvement in the [Israeli] strike and… did not know about it ahead of time,” according to a National Security Council spokesperson and a U.S. official who spoke to Axios. It is rare for the U.S. to relay such messages to Tehran, given that Iran has an incredibly poor relationship with the West and is the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism.
Iran has vowed to enact revenge for the strikes on Monday and accused the Israeli government of “[breaching] all international conventions,” according to Axios.
The relationship between the Biden administration and the Israeli government has become increasingly strained in recent months. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is currently carrying out a sweeping counteroffensive in Gaza against Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 civilians.
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