Ex-CIA Director Says Israel Could Retaliate Against Iran Covertly

• David Petraeus told CNN that Israel could mount a covert response against Iran’s drone strikes.
• “They can pursue asymmetric attacks, cyberspace, and so forth,” Petraeus said.
• Saturday’s drone strikes mark the first time Iran has directly attacked Israel. 

A former CIA director says Israel could take a covert, rather than an overt, response against the Iranian drone strikes that took place on Saturday.

“There’s a whole menu of actions that they can take, not all of which are necessarily overt. They can pursue covert. They can pursue asymmetric attacks, cyberspace, and so forth,” former CIA director and retired general David Petraeus told CNN on Sunday.

“And keep in mind that, of course, Washington is meeting with the other G7 countries to determine what kind of diplomatic and economic responses should follow in a coordinated effort as well,” Petraeus added.

On Saturday, Iran launched an airborne attack against Israel and fired off more than 300 drones and missiles. Israel’s military said it was able to intercept 99% of the munitions with the support of the US, UK, French, and Jordanian militaries.

The attack, Iran said, was an act of retaliation for Israel’s bombing of an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria on April 1. The airstrike had reportedly killed several top Iranian military commanders. Saturday’s attack marks the first time Iran has directly attacked Israel.

“The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations wrote on X on Saturday.

However, experts believe that it is unlikely that Israel won’t respond to Iran’s attack.

“While Iran may now say that the issue is closed, it would be very surprising to see the Israelis not feel the need to respond, given the extent of the escalation,” Carmiel Arbit, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told BI’s Rebecca Rommen.

To be sure, Israel is no stranger to covert operations in Iran.

Back in 2018, Israel deployed agents from its intelligence agency, Mossad, to Tehran, where they took files from Iran’s nuclear archive, per The New York Times.

The same goes for Iran, who in January said they had attacked Mossad’s headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region with ballistic missiles.

The risk of a continued tit-for-tat between Israel and Iran has rattled investors, who fear that further escalation could disrupt the supply of oil.

And that, Petraeus told CNN on Sunday, isn’t something that Iran wants to see.

“Iran, I don’t think, wants to have that disrupted either because they export about 1.6 or 1.7 million barrels a day themselves,” Petraeus said.

“So, keep your eye on that. Brent Crude is already above $90 a barrel, and it would really spike if there was something that interfered with freedom of navigation,” he continued.

Representatives for Petraeus did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.