Iranian retaliation for the assassination of General Qassim Suleimani could spread throughout the Middle East.
The Tasnim news agency interviewed a top Revolutionary Guards commander revealed the response may occur at sea.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there ... vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since long time ago ... some 35 U.S. targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach,” said General Gholamali Abuhamzeh.
Abuhamzeh commands the Guards in the province of Kerman.
Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's ambassador to the United States called the assassination "an act of war" and vowed "revenge."
Douglas Silliman, who served as America's ambassador to Iraq, has warned the retaliation may not come directly from Iran, but from Iranian-backed militia groups like the Popular Mobilization Forces.
“I am concerned for American allies in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, because they are relatively easier targets for Iranian proxies to attack. So you might see attacks from Houthis in Yemen across the border into Saudi Arabia,” Silliman explained. “You could potentially see attacks from Iranian-aligned PMF forces in Iraq into Saudi Arabia. And there are other people who could do mischief in the region. So I think that the Gulf states are fairly vulnerable.”
“There is also a significant American military presence in virtually all of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] states. And in many of those locations, you have not only soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen, but you also have families and children of American service members and not to mention families and children of American diplomats, U.S. business people, NGO workers, and nonprofits. There are a lot of Americans who live in Saudi Arabia, in the UAE and Kuwait, and elsewhere in the region,” he noted. “So the number of targets that have an American label gets much larger and much softer as you look at the region. I would also say there is also a possibility of attacks on Israel from Lebanon or from western Syria, which would be a little bit more difficult to accomplish. Condemnation of Israel generally goes along with condemnation of the United States in Iran, and [the drone strike] may have been seen by some in Iran as a joint venture [between the United States and Israel].”
