'Netanyahu is just playing': How an IRGC Official dismissed warning from a Western official about Israeli attack and paid heavily

As Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reels from its costly miscalculation about Israel's intentions, a report has emerged about how a senior IRGC official dismissed the warning about the impending attack only to find Israeli missiles decimating the entire senior command. 

According to a report that appeared in Ynet News, a Western diplomat rang up a senior IRGC official, who has not been named, to ask him about the impending Israeli attack. The Western official who had heard from several sources that Israel was about to attack Iran called the IRGC official, who he had known for many years by virtue of his position, on Thursday night. 

"The IRGC official was well-versed in what was happening in his country and its security, intelligence and operational systems. The senior Iranian official was sleeping when the call came and did not answer the phone initially. He woke up later to attend the call but sounded angry at being woken up. 'It's nothing, talk in the air. A game that Israel is playing to increase Trump's leverage in the negotiations on Sunday. They didn't get what they wanted, the Americans, and so now they are trying other methods of threats and blackmail with threat," the Ynet report quoted the IRGC official.

However, he was about to say goodbye and hang up when a deafening explosion was heard, even over the transatlantic phone line. It wasn't his house that was bombed, but the target was one of the top IRGC officials who had lived in the same residential neighbourhood.

Not just this IRGC official, but many in Iran's ruling elite believed Israel wouldn't attack. This miscalculation prompted Iran’s top military commanders to not seek shelter. They even ignored recommendations not to congregate in a single area, according to a New York Times report. 

The NYT also claimed to possess the private texts of Iranian officials angrily asking: "Where is our air defence?" and "How can Israel come and attack anything it wants, kill our top commanders, and we are incapable of stopping it?"

That said, many in the Israeli Defence Forces were also unsure about whether or not Israel would attack. After all, Netanyahu had already tricked the system on two dates recently - April 1st and May 1.

Middle East