After a meeting with Donald Trump, French president Emmanuel Macron made two statements. He said that Trump is going to pull the US from Iran deal and that as a consequence of that we are going to have another war in the Middle East. He got one thing right, and he’s not far away on the other.
Only hours after the US stepped out of Iran deal, the tensions escalated between Iran and Israel. The same day Trump made the announcement, Israeli troops were put on ‘high alert.’ The reservists are being called up, and bomb shelters are being prepared in expectations of Iran strikes.
Yesterday, Israeli officials went further and accused Iran of a rocket attack on Golan Heights, which was luckily an unsuccessful one. On the same night as a retaliation, Israeli bombers targeted Iranian outposts in Syria. The defense minister of Israel, Avigdor Liberman, stated that Israeli attacks on Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria were all on target.
The tensions between Iran and Israel are nothing new, but this time around, the conflict escalated too quickly. The new wave of violence is a cause to be concerned. The reporters from New York Times wrote: “While Israel and Iran have been conducting a shadow war in Syria for months under the cover of the civil war there, the conflict has now burst into the open.”
The conflict between these two countries is an ongoing matter almost for years, but due to the fact that it was shadow war on the territory of Syria, it wasn’t publicized. Iran is an ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and they are using this friendship to wage war against their enemy – Israel.
Israel is not accepting these actions, and since 2012 they have launched more than 100 attacks on Iranian targets in Syria. Their goal is to keep Iranians away from Israel border and to stop the weapons deliveries to Hezbollah.
Last month one of the Israeli attacks killed seven Iranian soldiers, and so far Iran hasn’t retaliated, but after what Trump did, it’s only a matter of time. Now that the US is no longer present in Iran in any capacity the conflict between the two countries will escalate without a doubt.
Ian Bremmer, the founder, and president of the Eurasia Group commented on the Middle East situation: “The Iranians have not responded, and I am sure a part of the reason for that is that they don’t want to give the Americans any reason to leave the deal. Now that they have done so, I assume that the gloves are off for the Iranians, and it makes mutual military escalation between the Israelis and the Iranians much more likely.”
Another pressing matter is the Iranian nuclear deal. Now, after the US stepped out of the agreement and imposed sanctions on Iran, they will be returning to their old ways. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif talked about this possibility: “We have put a number of options for ourselves, and those options are ready including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities.”
If Iran fails to avoid an economic crisis, with the help of European countries who are willing to continue the agreement, going for nuclear weapons might be their only option. If Iranians start working on their nuclear arsenal Israel threatens that they will begin to target their nuclear facilities. This action would most certainly lead to war.
In the past, US administration wanted to avoid the war, but Donald Trump is not hiding from this option. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is also ready for a full-scale conflict. With Saudi Arabia support, the war seems imminent at this point.
U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark is one of the people who believe so: “Israel has several times sought U.S. help, or at least U.S. support and backup in striking Iran’s nuclear program. Under the Obama Administration, the answer was, No. Under President Trump, and with the emerging condominium of interests between the Saudi’s and the Israeli’s, the possibility of war between Israel and Iran is rising.”
President Trump said that he doesn’t want another war in the Middle East, but his decisions are saying otherwise.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com
