Israel says it is bracing militarily for possible U.S-Iran escalation

The Israeli foreign minister said on Tuesday that the country is preparing for its possible military involvement in any escalation in the Gulf confrontation between Iran and the United States.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz told an international security forum that Iran might accidentally stumble out of what he termed the “gray zone” of contained confrontation.

“It should be taken into account that mistaken calculations by the (Iranian) regime…are liable to bring about a shift from the ‘gray zone’ to the ‘red zone’ — that is, a military conflagration,” he said in a speech to the Herzliya Conference.

“We must be prepared for this, and thus the State of Israel continues to devote itself to building up its military might for the event that it will have to respond to escalation scenarios.”

“Iran has no chance in this war,” he told Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday, as Katz predicted that what he described as the U.S.-led “economic war” on Iran would succeed despite the misgivings of other world powers.

“Therefore there is an opportunity there, through the tough economic pressure and the comprehensive sanctions, to prevent war, to achieve the objectives without war,” he added.

“They know what they’re doing,” President Trump, who withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018, had said during a bill signing in the Oval Office on Monday. “They know what they’re playing with, and they’re playing with fire.”

The rising tensions may lead to a military conflict after Iran recently shot down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone and was accused of bombing oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Trump further released a statement saying that he called off a retaliatory strike over the drone shootdown after learning as many as 150 Iranians could be killed.