Analysis. In the light of all this, the intent of genocidal Netanyahu-led Israel seems clear: to raise the level of confrontation with Iran in order to provoke an Iranian military response.
written by Laura Guazzone
Topic Middle East and North Africa
April 16, 2024
On the imminent prospect of Iran attacking Israel, Biden’s message to the Iranians was “don’t” – a disquieting mantra that the Biden administration continued to recite all through the tension-filled wait, extensively covered by the media, for the armed response by the dictatorial government of the Ayatollahs to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, 2024.
It was the latest and most serious in Israel’s series of military attacks in recent months against the military presence of Iran (and its “Axis of Resistance” allies) in the theoretically sovereign territories of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. After Hamas’ massive and brutal October 7 attack in southern Israel, Iran and Hezbollah, its main regional ally, quickly took pains to stress that they didn’t know about the attack and were not involved in it, in order to avoid being drawn into a direct and generalized clash with the Israeli army and the military forces of their U.S. ally in the region.
Then, over the following six months, a low-intensity conflict developed, in which Iran and its Shiite allied movements in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen conducted attacks against Israel, the U.S., and their interests in the Middle East. (Here, the Houthis deserve a passing mention, who are not in fact “rebels” but a Shiite political movement of opposition to the dictatorship that arose in the 1990s, controlling the capital and two-thirds of Yemen’s territory since 2014, despite an extensive military campaign waged against them by a Saudi-led international coalition aimed at restoring the interests undermined by the Arab Spring uprisings).
This picture of low-intensity clashes (up to now) with Iran ties in with the global “great game” for regional hegemony in the Middle East, which, since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, has seen the return of Russia’s military presence and the gradual shifting of the axis of economic and strategic interests of the Gulf oil countries – Iran included – towards China. Especially after the disengagement of U.S. policy from the Middle East, which started already under Obama. Not coincidentally, it was China that led Iran and the Saudis to sign an agreement in March 2023 that, at least for the time being, put a damper on their contest for regional hegemony (while we must not forget that both countries are vying for nuclear weapons).
Thus, one of the current goals of U.S. strategy in the region (if there really is one) is to win back the Gulf countries, bringing them under its “security umbrella,” of which Israel is a pillar in the region and not only.
In the light of all this, the intent of genocidal Netanyahu-led Israel seems clear: to raise the level of confrontation with Iran in order to provoke an Iranian military response that will give a reason to the U.S. not to abandon the defense of Israel to the bitter end, despite the latter’s (relative) disobedience in the conduct of its war against the Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Your weekly briefing of progressive news.
Laura Guazzone
Israel’s strategy toward Iran: raise the stakes
25
0
16.04.2024
Analysis. In the light of all this, the intent of genocidal Netanyahu-led Israel seems clear: to raise the level of confrontation with Iran in order to provoke an Iranian military response.
written by Laura Guazzone
Topic Middle East and North Africa
April 16, 2024
On the imminent prospect of Iran attacking Israel, Biden’s message to the Iranians was “don’t” – a disquieting mantra that the Biden administration continued to recite all through the tension-filled wait, extensively covered by the media, for the armed response by the dictatorial government of the Ayatollahs to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, 2024.
It was the latest and most serious in Israel’s series of military attacks in recent months against the military presence of Iran (and its “Axis........
© Il Manifesto Global
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Nikkei Editorial
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Rami G Khouri
