By Athena Papakosta

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deciding how and when to respond to Tehran’s retaliation against Israel on October 1. But while the international community is trying to guess how and when the Israeli response, the wider region is holding its breath, as Iran maintains a high tone declaring that there are no red lines.

The way

On Saturday night, the American network NBC News – citing American officials – reported that Israel is considering striking energy infrastructure and military targets in Iran, ruling out the possibility of hitting the country’s nuclear facilities.

To be sure, a strike against Iran’s energy infrastructure could have enormous consequences, both economic and political, beyond the Middle East.

Tehran has warned the Gulf Arab states, allies of the United States, that they should avoid getting involved in Israel’s retaliation against Tehran or they will be… next.

Such an event could lead to a sharp increase in crude oil prices and consequently to disastrous consequences for the global economy.

But it could also complicate the path to the November US elections favoring the candidacy of Donald Trump and his return to the Oval Office, as higher oil prices could lead to higher prices at the pump, causing discontent among American citizens.

The time

And Israel may be holding its cards close to retaliating against Iran, but analysts say the timing of the attack may depend on the deployment time of the advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system they are deploying the United States in Israel, proving that Washington – despite disagreements on a number of issues with the Netanyahu government – ​​stands militarily on Israel’s side.

This is information which, initially, we read in the Israeli media and early Sunday afternoon both the Pentagon and the American president, Joe Biden, confirmed it.

The THAAD anti-missile defense system will work in coordination with Israel’s Arrow defense system and will be operated by American soldiers, who will set foot on Israeli soil for the first time in the ongoing war.

This decision by Washington, according to experts, shows that the United States is taking seriously the warnings and threats of Iran, which declares that it is absolutely ready to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghtsi had already warned Washington in this regard, calling on it to keep its military forces away from Israel. More specifically, through a post on the X platform, Mr. Araghtsi had underlined that “the United States has delivered a record amount of weapons to Israel” to add that the decision to deploy soldiers to Israel “to operate the American missile systems” would endanger their lives. And the clock starts counting down again with no one knowing what the end of this Middle East game will be.