Israeli officials reportedly believe US attack is ‘unavoidable’; Iran said to okay counterproposal for next round of nuclear talks on Thursday as IRGC holds drills on Iran’s coast
American F-22 stealth fighter jets were deployed at an Israeli Air Force base in southern Israel on Tuesday, as part of the United States’s massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East, The Times of Israel has learned.
The jets were stationed at an airbase in the United Kingdom in recent days, according to open-source flight tracking data and aircraft spotters, and were seen taking off earlier on Tuesday.
Their arrival in Israel is another step in the amassing of American aircraft in the region as tensions between Iran and the US threaten to erupt into war.
Negotiations between the two countries over the Iranian nuclear program are ongoing, and the sides are due to meet on Thursday in Geneva. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has reportedly gotten the green light for a counterproposal to submit to the American negotiating team.
But US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened that he will attack Iran if those talks fail. Iran has vowed to strike Israel and US targets in the region in response.
Israeli officials are said to believe that a US strike is inevitable, and top military brass from the two countries have reportedly been in contact. One official quoted by Channel 12 news on Tuesday said that a diplomatic resolution to the conflict would be the “surprise of the year.”
Against that backdrop, a total of 12 F-22s were seen taking off from Royal Air Force Lakenheath in England
The F-22, operated exclusively by the US Air Force, is the world’s most advanced air-superiority fighter, built for unmatched speed, maneuverability, and stealth in air-to-air combat.
The deployment of US fighter jets at Israeli airbases for operational activities — rather than for joint training with the IAF — is extremely rare.
In total, dozens of fighter jets — including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s, and F-16s — have been spotted heading to the Middle East in recent days by the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyzes military and government flight activity.
The team says it’s also tracked dozens of accompanying fuel tankers, as well as hundreds of cargo flights, heading into the region since mid-February. On Monday, American refueler and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport.
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