The Media Line: Israel Braces for Possible Iran Conflict ‘Within Days’ as US Builds Up Air Power to Iraq War Levels  

Israel Braces for Possible Iran Conflict ‘Within Days’ as US Builds Up Air Power to Iraq War Levels  

By The Media Line Staff  

Israel has raised its level of military readiness and is assessing that a confrontation with Iran may be imminent, Israel’s state broadcaster Kan reported Wednesday, citing senior Israeli officials amid growing regional tensions and a significant US military buildup.  

According to the report, Israeli officials believe a potential US strike on Iran could occur in the near term and may evolve into a campaign lasting several weeks. The assessment comes as Washington has reinforced its forces in the Middle East and as indirect nuclear talks between the United States and Iran concluded in Geneva.  

Officials told Kan that US President Donald Trump appears closer to authorizing a large-scale confrontation in the region, prompting Israeli preparations for fighting that could break out “possibly within days.” Israel is maintaining heightened alert levels across its security establishment, the report said.  

“We are facing challenging days in relation to Iran,” Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said during a parliamentary session. “The public is preparing, the authorities are preparing,” he added.  

A pre-scheduled meeting of Israel’s security cabinet was postponed from Thursday to Sunday, a government official said, against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran and expanded US force deployments in the region.  

US online outlet Axios reported, citing open-source flight radar data and a US official, that the Trump administration last week dispatched a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. The report said more than 50 fighter jets, including F-35, F-22 and F-16 aircraft, have moved to the region over the past 24 hours.  

The Wall Street Journal reported that the current buildup of US air power is the largest in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The newspaper said the deployment allows for a significantly longer campaign than the US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities during the Israel-Iran war last June, which involved B-2 bombers.  

Meanwhile, Iran and the United States completed a second round of indirect nuclear talks in Geneva earlier this week. The discussions were held at Oman’s embassy and mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi. The first round took place in Muscat on Feb. 6.  

Separately, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged Polish citizens to leave Iran immediately, warning that the risk of active conflict is “very, very real.” He cautioned that hostilities could erupt within “a few, a dozen or several dozen hours,” adding that evacuation might soon become impossible.  

The US State Department and the US virtual embassy to Iran urged American citizens to leave the country at the beginning of the year as mass demonstrations and crackdowns erupted in Iran.