The US will deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system and its military crew to Israel amid conflict in West Asia, said the Pentagon on Sunday.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, on the directions of US President Joe Biden, "authorised the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel's air defences following Iran's unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1," said Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, reported AFP.
The announcement comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned earlier that there would be "no red lines" in defending the country's people and interests while trying to "contain an all-out war in our region."
Israel has vowed retaliation to the October 1 attack by Iran which it said was in response to the killing of militant leaders in the region and a general in its Revolutionary Guards.
On Sunday, Araghchi arrived in Baghdad where he held talks with Iraqi officials in Iran's latest high-level diplomatic efforts ahead of Israel's anticipated attack.
Holding a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Iran's Foreign Minister said his country was "fully prepared for a war situation...but we do not want war, we want peace."
He said Iran would continue consultations "to prevent the escalation of tension in the region and to work for peace and ceasefire" in Gaza and Lebanon.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called out Israel for exploitation of Iraqi airspace and said that Baghdad was against a regional war spreading to Iran.
"The continuation of the war and its expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and (Israel's) exploitation of Iraqi airspace as a corridor is completely unacceptable and rejected," said the Iraqi minister.