Members of the Revolutionary Guards during a military parade. (Credit: Iranian Presidency/Handout/AFP)
Iran heightened alert levels near its nuclear sites amid fears of a U.S. and Israeli attack, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.
Two senior government officials told the British newspaper that Iran was also bolstering its defenses near missile sites by deploying more military defense systems.
According to the newspaper, Iran fears that with the support of Trump, who has advocated for Israel to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities, an Israeli attack is imminent.
It follows warnings from U.S. intelligence to both the Biden and Trump administrations that Israel would likely target key Iranian nuclear sites this year.
“They [Iranian authorities] are just waiting for the attack and are anticipating it every night and everything has been on high alert – even in sites that no one knows about,” one source told The Telegraph.
Trump stated his preference for making a deal with Tehran but he has also emphasized that he would consider military action if negotiations break down.
Strike 'highly likely' in fall: Shapiro
On Sunday, U.S. national security adviser, Michael Waltz, said that Trump was willing “to talk to Iran” only on condition of giving up the “entire [nuclear] program and not play games as we’ve seen Iran do in the past.”
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said the U.S. and Israel could decide to strike Iran as early as this fall, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
During an annual conference at the Institute for National Security Studies, Shapiro called it "highly likely" that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump would soon face a decision regarding an attack on Iran, as early as this year.
The INSS is an independent think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University.
"If an attack occurs, it is crucial that it succeeds," he said. "The decision to strike would be a joint one between Netanyahu and Trump."
"It is important to emphasize that Iran is at its weakest point in decades," he said. "The president's offer of direct negotiations with the Iranians may not materialize and should be pursued in partnership with the Europeans."
During the war in Gaza that began in October 2023, Israel and Iran were engaged in limited direct confrontations in April and October 2024.
On April 13, 2024, Iran launched attacks against Israel in retaliation for the bombing of a building of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, two weeks prior. One civilian was critically injured, and Israel carried out airstrikes on Iran six days later, targeting an air defense facility near Isfahan, without any casualties.
On Oct. 1, a new exchange of strikes occurred as a retaliation for the killing by Israel of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan. Two waves of 200 ballistic missiles were launched by Iran, killing one Palestinian and one Israeli civilian. Israel retaliated on the 26th of the same month with strikes on 20 locations, including missile production sites and nuclear research centers, in Iran, Iraq and Syria, which killed five.
