‘WE ARE ENGAGED IN INTENSE DIPLOMACY’: Another tense night passed in Israel without Iran’s threatened major attack materializing, but no one is breathing a sigh of relief.

“It is a critical moment.  We are engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message: All parties must refrain from escalation.  All parties must take steps to ease tensions.  Escalation is not in anyone’s interest. It will only lead to more conflict, more violence, more insecurity,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a State Department news conference. “It’s also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. That, in turn, will unlock possibilities for more enduring calm, not only in Gaza itself but in other areas where the conflict could spread.”

“What it comes down to, really, is all parties finding ways to come to an agreement, not look for reasons to delay or to say no,” Blinken said. “It is urgent that all parties make the right choices in the hours and days ahead.”

Leaders in Egypt and Turkey say they are also working to find a diplomatic off-ramp to avert the Israel-Hamas war from becoming a wider war that draws in other countries in the region. But Iran continues to vow a response to the killings of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran.

“Iran cannot be indifferent toward the security, it’s friends and allies security and the security of the region,” Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Minister, said Monday.

US TROOPS COME UNDER FIRE IN IRAQ: There was an apparent rocket attack yesterday by Iranian-backed militia on the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq where U.S. troops are based.  Several U.S. personnel were wounded, but none seriously, defense officials said. 

The U.S. Central Command has yet to release details of the attack. Still, Iraqi security officials confirmed it occurred Monday, as tensions in the region rise, and strikes against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been on an uptick in recent weeks. As many as seven military troops and civilians suffered injuries, one official told the Associated Press.

The Pentagon acknowledged the incident in a readout of a phone conversation between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant agreed that today’s Iran-aligned militia attack on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation and demonstrated Iran’s destabilizing role in the region,” spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. “Secretary Austin provided an update on measures to strengthen U.S. military posture in the region in light of this escalating situation.”

“The chess game that’s underway right now in the Middle East, which is horrifying in and of itself, is one between Iran and Israel,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN. “I suspect, but I don’t know … that this militia attack on a U.S. base was probably not part of the retaliation that we’re bracing for.”

“I think the Iranians are smart enough to know that A, the United States has been working very hard for a ceasefire deal, Israel, Gaza, and, B, I don’t think the Iranians want a direct and open fight with the Israelis and they sure don’t want a direct open fight with the United States,” Himes said. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) blamed what she called the “Biden-Harris administration’s policy of appeasement” for the attacks.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris reversed President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, allowing Iranian oil exports to skyrocket, providing Tehran access to $16 billion in sanctions relief, and opposing the snapback of U.N. sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program,” Stefanik said in a statement. “This appeasement has empowered Iranian-backed terrorists to carry out nearly 200 attacks against U.S. service members, resulting in the deaths of Americans and countless injuries.”

IRAN’S TARGETING PLOY: Meanwhile, a media outlet run by the Iranian armed forces has published a list of potential civilian and military targets in Israel, which appears to be an effort to confuse Israel about what it needs to protect with its air defenses.

“The target list is not necessarily an indicator of what exact targets Iran will strike,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment.  “It is more likely intended to achieve informational effects rather than to specify the precise targets to be struck.”

“Iran’s decision to explicitly name these targets, which are spread throughout Israel, likely seeks to cause the Israel Defense Forces to disperse air- and missile-defense assets across a wide area,” the ISW suggests. “The list includes Israeli military bases and government sites like the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Knesset building in Jerusalem, and eight airbases across Israel.”

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre.

HAPPENING TODAY: With one eye on the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin host their Australian counterparts, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles, for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations in Annapolis, Maryland.

The talks get underway at 10 a.m., and a press conference featuring all four ministers is set for 4:30 p.m. It will be live-streamed on the State Department and Pentagon websites.

“We share with Australia a vision for a free, open, and secure Indo-Pacific,” Austin said before a meeting with Marles yesterday. “Together, our unbreakable alliance is helping to make that vision a reality. We’re delivering on major force posture initiatives, deepening our defense industrial cooperation, and expanding efforts with our regional allies and partners.”

In September 2021, Australia, U.K., and the U.S. formed a trilateral partnership dubbed AUKUS, which, among other things, aimed to provide Australia with a fleet of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.

“The U.S.-Australia alliance is more than history or tradition,” Wong said yesterday at the State Department. “It is a living expression of two countries that are aligned. We’re aligned by who we are, what we stand for, and what we want. Two robust democracies whose peoples’ voices and values are heard and protected by the rule of law, and both of us home to ancient cultures and generations of immigrants to countries that share an interest in a world that’s open, stable, and prosperous, in which all of us can make our own sovereign choices.”

UKRAINE WAR: RUSSIA ADVANCES, UKRAINE SINKS SUB: The war in Ukraine continues on a slow burn with both sides claiming modest successes. In recent days, Russian forces have advanced at great cost east of Toretsk and Pokrovsk and near Donetsk City and Robotyne, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russia has been averaging more than 1,000 casualties a day, although the daily toll has dropped from 1,262 to 1,140, according to the British Defense Ministry.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drones have been having success attacking Russian oil facilities as well as combat aircraft parked on the ground. Satellite imagery shows that Ukrainian drone strikes destroyed a Su-34 bomber aircraft and an ammunition warehouse at the Morozovsk Airfield in Rostov Oblast on August 3, the ISW reported.

“Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted drone strikes against an oil depot in Rostov Oblast and missile strikes against fuel storage warehouses in occupied Luhansk City on August 4.” the ISW noted.

This week, Ukraine officially acknowledged it had received its first delivery of F-16 fighter jets and also claimed to have sunk the Russian Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don as it was being repaired from a previous strike. At the same time, Ukrainian missiles hit an S-400 anti-aircraft missile complex in occupied Crimea.