Islamic Republic of Iran has strongly reacted to a deadly air strike that Israel carried out in his country’s consular annex in Damascus, Syria. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has said on his website, among other things, that “After repeated defeats and failures against the faith and will of the Resistance Front fighters, the Zionist regime has put blind assassinations on its agenda in the struggle to save itself.
Day by day, we have witnessed the strengthening of the Resistance Front and the disgust and hatred of free nations towards the illegitimate nature of (Israel). This cowardly crime will not go unanswered.” The question is whether or not the Islamic republic will carry out strikes inside Israel to exact the revenge in a befitting manner.
In my view, however, the Zionist state knows very well that none of the Islamic countries, including Iran and Turkey, can pose any challenge to its growing belligerence that it has been demonstrating consistently to the sheer chagrin of the entire Muslim Ummah.
There is little or no doubt about the fact that Israel had played a key role in the bombings on the occasion of death anniversary of Gen Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, Iran, resulting in the deaths of about 100 people. Iranian President Raisi had blamed both Israel and the US for the terrorist attack with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowing a “harsh response.”
Unfortunately, however, that ‘harsh response’ is still awaited. The Islamic republic’s inaction or lack of action, in my view, has encouraged and emboldened Israel to step up its aggression and atrocities on the Palestinians on one hand, and humiliate Iran and its proxies in the region through assassination of its senior army officers and even nuclear scientists on the other.
It is quite clear that all countries in the Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, and outside of it seem to have decided to become Israel’s strong partners in trade and defence in the region in due course regardless of the plight of the Palestinians. In other words, these Arab countries have conveniently thrown Palestinians to the wolves.
So, Iran has found itself pitted not only against Israel but also against the Zionist state’s potential allies in the region. But it must respond to Israel’s belligerence immediately without involving Hezbollah or any other Muslim militia in the region.
Mehdi Hasan
Karachi
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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