Iran readies more than 100 cruise missiles and drones for deadly Israel strike, US intelligence officials reveal, as Pentagon moves aircraft carrier into the Red Sea amid fears of full-scale war

Iran has reportedly readied more than 100 cruise missiles as part of an 'imminent' strike on Israel after the US moved more forces into the Middle East over fears an attack could spark a full-scale war. 

Military officials briefed on the matter told both ABC News and CNN that the US has observed Iran readying at least 100 cruise missiles, indicating they could be ready to attack.

ABC also reported that a large number of drones that could be used in an attack on Israel have also been readied by the nation. 

Pentagon officials said the US would beef up its presence in the region and the USS Dwight Eisenhower would be sent into the Red Sea in a warning to Tehran. 

Iran has publicly threatened to hit back at Israel over an attack in Syria last week, which Tehran say was an Israeli airstrike on a Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus. 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retribution in the wake of the Damascus attack, for which Tel-Aviv has yet to take responsibility.

US Defense officials on Friday said they are moving 'additional assets to the area', hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem locked down it's staff. 

The USS Dwight Eisenhower would be able to intercept missiles and drones fired by Iran.

President Biden said on Friday that he expected Iran to attack Israel 'sooner than later' and that his message to Tehran was 'don't'. 

'We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel and help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,' Biden said. 

Asked how imminent an attack on Israel may be, Biden said he didn't want to get into classified information but 'my expectation is sooner than later.' 

Former President Trump called Biden 'pretty pathetic' and claimed that had he been in office Iran wouldn't be attacking Israel. 

Trump said: 'For the president of our country to actually put out a warning that he thinks that we're going to be attacked or they're going to be attacked. That's pretty pathetic.'

'They wouldn't be attacking Israel if I were president, that I can tell you,' he continued. 'And they never did.' 

Israel was widely blamed for an April 1 attack that destroyed Iran's consulate building in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including the two generals.

The strike levelled a five-storey building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. 

General Mohammad Reza Zahedi was one of those who died in the attack, having held a succession of commands in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel 'must be punished and will be punished', days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are 'no longer safe'.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that 'if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran'.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond with force to any assault by Iran, leaving tensions in the Middle East on a knife-edge. 

Defense officials on Friday said they are moving 'additional assets to the area', hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem locked down it's staff. 

The USS Dwight Eisenhower would be able to intercept missiles and drones fired by Iran.

The White House on Friday wouldn't go as far as to say that an attack was 'imminent,' instead calling the threat 'viable.' 

'We still deem the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable, certainly credible and we're watching it as closely as we can,'  White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. 

Kirby added that the U.S. was in 'constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves against those kind of attacks.' 

He added that 'force posture changes' had been made to ensure the US is 'properly prepared' for any Iranian assault, but declined to go into detail.

The NSC spokesperson gave no details on the potential timing of such an attack, amid warnings it could happen within the next 48 hours.

'I really don't want to get into armchair quarterbacking this thing in a public way in terms of the conversations we're having or what we're seeing in the intelligence picture,' Kirby said.  

On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem did not explicitly mention Iran but issued a warning to government workers. 

'Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, … Jerusalem, and Be'er Sheva areas until further notice,' the security alert read. 

Iran enjoys a heavy advantage in terms of sheer manpower, boasting a collective active and reserve military of roughly 1.2 million troops as well as thousands upon thousands of artillery systems. 

Israel meanwhile has around 750,000 active and military personnel at its disposal - but hundreds of thousands of these are already engaged in operations in and around Gaza, while others maintain a presence in the north to ward off border attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

Though Israel is outnumbered, it is by no means outgunned - the IDF boasts more than 3,000 tanks in its ranks, roughly double the number thought to be in service in Iran. 

The Washington Post reported Thursday that senior Pentagon officials were frustrated that the U.S. did not get a heads up from Israel before conducting an airstrike on the Iranian site. 

Three unnamed U.S. officials told the paper said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior defense officials believed Israel should have informed the Pentagon ahead of the attack because of the strike's implications for U.S. servicemembers in the region. 

Had the U.S. gotten a heads up, the Pentagon would have been able to heighten defense capabilities in order to withstand Iranian retaliation, the sources said. 

If Israel and Iran to engage in an all-out war, the consequences could be devastating.

Professor Gerald Steinberg, an expert in conflict management and founder of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, said a potential war between Iran and Israel would be both futile and devastating.

'They are on the verge of a confrontation similar to the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis between Washington and Moscow. Both countries can do massive damage to the other, but neither can "win",' he said.