Retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt predicted that Iran will not retaliate from Iranian soil after an airstrike by Israel on Friday.
I don't think [Iran] retaliates from Iranian soil," he said Friday's on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "I think Hezbollah and the Houthis will light up pretty significantly and then we'll see some activity out of Iraq and Syria.
"Iran has had a very bad week when you think about their big strike. It was all defended, but what I find so astonishing was how quickly a five-country coalition came together and put air assets up, synchronized those assets, and defeated everything Iran threw at them. That has to really freak out Iran's military and the Russian and Chinese militaries."
Holt said Israel's airstrike was a success.
"Then you got this strike that just happened. Iran is going to play this down as much as they can," he said. "They learned that they're naked. They learned that their S300 missile system that they have is worthless. Now they understand how vulnerable they are."
Former State Department special adviser Gabriel Noronha, who also was interviewed on "Wake Up America," talked about the conflict.
"This was a limited and de-escalatory strike by Israel again trying to prove that they can have mastery over Iran's airspace, and that was very important," he said. "Iran wasn't able to intercept any of the munitions that Israel fired."
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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