World in 'uncharted territory' if Iran directly attacks Israel

World in 'uncharted territory' if Iran directly attacks Israel

The world would be in "uncharted territory" if Iran follows through on threats to attack Israel, a former head of the Middle East department at the Foreign Office has told Sky's Politics Hub. 

Iran has vowed retaliation for a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria earlier this month, which killed two of its top generals.

Israel has not commented on the attack, but Tehran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the country "must be punished, and it shall be".

"If Iran was to miscalculate and attack Israel directly, then I think … Israel would respond in kind, and we could find ourselves in uncharted territory," Sir William Patey said. 

He added that by publicly vowing retaliation, it will be hard for the Ayatollah to back down, although they will be facing a "dilemma" on potential targets.

"The Ayatollah Khamenei has said twice now that they're going to attack, so he's very publicly out there saying that there will be reprisals - quite hard for him to back down," he said. 

"It is possible that they might use proxies, which is their standard methodology. But they have said they feel the need to attack Israel directly." 

He added, they may not attack directly in Israel, but they are limited when it comes to other targets.