The interview took place as US officials warned of a growing Iranian threat to Americans overseas. Westfall said a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Iranian plots against US citizens as advanced. He also said the State Department has reduced staff at its embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
In his words, Alon Burstein said, “One more thing that I want to show in this escalatory rhetoric, this just came out about 2 minutes before we started. This is a map of Israel that Iran put out about 10 minutes ago, and it shows a bank of targets that Iran is saying, ‘If and when there is now a return to fighting, this is what we’re going to see ourselves as liberated to attack.’ It’s on a list of bridges, it’s got airports, sanitation plants, oil refineries, and they also put out, without saying anything, a separate picture of Israel’s reported nuclear facility in Dimona. Without saying anything, they just added that picture in there. It’s a very, very not so veiled threat,” he said.
Burstein said that if Iran attacked Israel, Israel would retaliate. He said that if Iran carried out lower-level attacks, the United States would retaliate. He said Washington has so far tried not to escalate, but added that it remains to be seen.
Burstein said the war of words has become much more intense over the last several weeks. Westfall also said Israel will hold an election on Tuesday, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lose power. He added that President Trump has endorsed Netanyahu.