TheAltWorld Iran into the fray?
An expanded regional war has never looked more likely
The surprise statement issued on Friday by Iran’s mission to the United Nations amounted to a clear threat to both the US and the Israeli occupation state.
It read: “Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, including the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”
Several observations can be made about this declaration and what prompted it.
First, the fact that the Iranian leadership chose to deliver it via the UN mission, and not for example the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), means it was intended as a message to the US: that Iran will intervene militarily to defend its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and that all the other fronts will also ignite not only against Israel but also the US and its interests in the region. The 360-strong missile and drone barrage launched against Israeli military bases in the Naqab in May served as a reminder that when Iran promises, it delivers.
Second, Iran may have concluded that the resumption of US deliveries of precision munitions to Israel — 2,800 500-2,000 lb bombs, including bunker-busters, and 3,000 hellfire missiles — on a massive scale and in great haste, is in readiness for an assault on Hezbollah. The Israeli leadership can no longer tolerate the state of collapse on the northern front and the evacuation of 200,000 settlers.
Third, when Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant was in Washington he did not only discuss rising tensions on the northern front but also Iran’s nuclear programme amid reports that the country has gone from being a nuclear threshold state to an actual nuclear power — an existential threat to the occupation state. Kamal Kharrazi, head of Iran’s Strategic Council for External Relations, declared in May: “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.” That implies it already has the technology, know-how, and equipment needed to achieve that breakout.
Israel is losing on all fronts. In the Gaza Strip, resistance fighters continue to subject their forces to devastating daily ambushes, nine months after their invasion. The same is beginning to happen in the West, as in this week’s ambush in Jenin in which an Israeli officer was killed and 16 soldiers injured. In addition to Hezbollah’s limited but highly effective war of attrition, the maritime campaign waged by the Yemenis with support from the Iraqi resistance has made the Red Sea off-limits to Israeli-bound shipping and massively disrupted global seaborne trade.
The key to these defeats has been Israel’s arrogance and the short-sightedness of its US backers.
One of their biggest mistakes was to think that the culture of submission has prevailed in the Arab world and that the Arab normalizers—old and new — are the authentic representatives of the new Arab.
The coming weeks and months will be crucial. An expanded regional war has never looked more likely.
0 thoughts on “Iran into the fray?”