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The former general said neither Iran nor Israel want a full-scale war because it would be highly destructive to both sides.
By Shula Rosen
Despite tensions over Iran’s threats of a major retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, former CIA Director and US CENTCOM commander David Petraeus said he didn’t think a full scale war would result.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened Israel following the assassination, although Israel has not claimed responsibility for the killing of the Hamas leader.
While Petraeus says Iran feels it has to retaliate for the killing of a terror ally on Iranian soil, in an interview with Iran International, the former general said neither Iran nor Israel want war because it would be extremely destructive to both sides.
Petraeus says the assassination of Haniyeh in a IRGC guest house reportedly by an explosive that had been planted months earlier and detonated last week was not only a security breach, but a blow to Iran’s national honor.
He said, the killing was a “huge intelligence failure and… a security failure,” Petraeus said in the interview. “They have to respond. But I don’t think that Iran wants to get into a real direct back-and-forth war with Israel… And frankly, I don’t think Israel wants to get in a real full-on war with Hezbollah or with Iran.”
Petraeus added that damage would be “very very substantial” to both sides if there were a full war.
The former general said the most likely scenario is two waves of attacks, one by Hezbollah in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah commander Faoud Sukr and another wave launched by Iran.
Regarding the type of attack, Petraeus said Iran and its proxies have a “whole menu” of options.
“I’m sure they’re looking at everything from trying to hit a military site…all the way up to hitting critical infrastructure or a major port or something like that. If that actually was to succeed, Israel would have to respond in a very massive way, not unlike the way that they responded to the Houthi drone attack… and they did enormous damage to the port of Hodeidah in Yemen.”
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