Israel attacks Iran in a very serious way to return the favor
What we’ll talk about: • Israel pounds Iran: In a high-stakes response to Iran’s barrage of nuclear missiles earlier this month, Israel attacked Iran directly on Saturday morning. Officials from the Israeli military said they hit “precise” military targets. A source in the Israeli military told CNN that the strikes did not damage energy systems.
- After the attacks, Iran said it was “entitled” to protect itself. The Iranian media seem to be playing down the strikes by saying that they only hit “limited” military sites in three areas. But the army says two troops were killed.
- A top source in the US government said that President Biden “encouraged” Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, to “design” an attack on Iran in response to the recent attacks on Israel. This attack would “deter future attacks against Israel.” Biden has been telling Netanyahu that his answer should be fair.
- In Gaza, the health ministry of the Strip says that Israeli troops have detained male staff members at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The head of the UN’s human rights office said on Friday that the north was going through “one of the darkest moments of the Gaza conflict.”
Israel’s very well thought-out reaction to Iran Geopolitical expert H. A. Hellyer told CNN that what happened on Saturday shows that the US can change what Israel does in the area “when it wants to.”
He told CNN’s Paula Newton on Saturday, “Israel will plan its own responses, keeping in mind that the United States is its closest ally, its most important ally, and so far, a pretty solid ally in terms of not putting any conditions or restrictions on how Israel carries out the war in Gaza, how it invades Lebanon, and of course, these strikes on Iran.”
According to a top source in the US government, US President Joe Biden “encouraged” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to “design” an attack on Iran in response to the recent attacks on Israel. This attack would “deter future attacks against Israel.”
Hellyer, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, said that the US also told Israel not to do anything that could make things worse in the Middle East in general.
“I think that the US’s involvement in this was important, but to be honest, it also shows that the US can force Israel to change its behavior,” he stressed. “So far, the war in Gaza has been really unrestrained for Israel, and that kind of pressure could be good there.”
The fact that many Arab states have spoken out against Israel’s attacks on Iran shows that they are worried about things getting worse in the area.
Even though they didn’t name Israel, the foreign office of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) “expressed deep concern” about the situation getting worse.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that Saudi Arabia, which is a regional power and a longtime enemy of Iran, also did not name Israel. Instead, it said that the “military targeting” of Iran was a “violation of its sovereignty” and against international law.
Qatar and Kuwait both spoke out against the Israeli attacks, and Egypt was very worried about the situation getting worse in the area.
Diplomacy at work: Gulf allies of the US In the past few years, Arab countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which are two of the world’s biggest oil producers, have avoided war in order to protect their economies. This has helped them make peace with countries they used to fight, like Iran.
He said on Saturday, “After more than a year of military confrontations and their unfortunate humanitarian and political effects, the region needs a different path that favors diplomatic work and political solutions and pushes towards reducing escalation and confrontations in favor of communication and dialogue channels.” Anwar Gargash is the presidential diplomatic adviser for the UAE.
Before the Israeli strikes, countries in the Middle East that had traditionally seen Iran as their biggest enemy in the area chose to engage the Islamic Republic in intense diplomatic talks.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, met with leaders from all over the Middle East over the past month. Aragchi said that he had been told by several countries that Israel would not be able to use their skies for the strike days before it happened.