On April 13, Iran carried out a massive attack with countless drones and missiles against Israel. It was the first direct offensive against Tel Aviv without using groups aided by Tehran, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The world, then, asks: what to expect from now on?
Will the Israeli government respond to the attack, thus provoking an escalation of the situation with no return? From what has been proven so far, not yet. Netanyahu would have been dissuaded from retaliating now against Iran, due to the discouragement he received from the US administration. Moreover, there is also no indication that Iran intends to take the recent conflict to a more serious stage.
Moreover, there is also no indication that Iran intends to take the recent conflict to a more serious stage. In the end, as reported by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, the attack on Israel on the 13th was a response to the deaths of about 18 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, victims of an Israeli airstrike in Syria earlier this month.
Therefore, Iran’s offensive on Israeli territory on April 13 would have the character of a simple «-for-tat» response (according to the Torah, the holy book of the Jews). This whole crisis, therefore, was initiated by the Israelis themselves who, at the beginning of the month, attacked the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, causing the deaths of Iranian generals. Be that as it may, by eliminating a small — but important — group from Iran’s military corps, Israel not only benefited, but also benefited the United States, which also sees Tehran as a threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East.
Iran, on the other hand, after the attacks of the 13th, only asks the Israelis to behave well and not to carry out any more attacks aimed at any Iranian military deployment, either inside the country or abroad. It is difficult, however, to imagine Israel remaining quiet for long, even in the face of a U.S. administration fearful of further complicating its relationship with Tel Aviv in the Middle East.
In the internal dispute, Netanyahu could, at an opportune moment, again raise his tone towards Iran and, even more, approve new air strikes against Iranian targets both in Syria and in other neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, the headquarters of Hezbollah. For now, officials in Tel Aviv have vowed to form a regional coalition to respond to Iran «in a timely manner.» No one knows yet when that «right time» will come.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iran Leader since 1989
In fact, Tehran has already been inciting these groups to confront the Israeli government since the start of the war in Gaza, significantly increasing pressure on Netanyahu. Now that another red line has been crossed, that is, after Iran launched a direct attack on Israel for the first time, the whole situation takes on even more dramatic contours than before.
Regrettably, however, we saw Western countries remain silent in condemning Israel’s actions not only in Syria, but also, and especially, in reference to the Israeli army’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Russia, in turn, expressed concern about the possibility of another military escalation in the Middle East. As for Gaza, Moscow has been calling for an immediate ceasefire in the region since October last year, something that did not happen due to the Western veto in the United Nations Security Council.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the complex nature of the many unresolved crises in the Middle East, However, Iran’s recent attack showed that there are indeed «limits» to such situations and that Israel will not always get away with its actions, especially when we are talking about an attack on the diplomatic missions of a sovereign country abroad. Moreover, the Israeli attacks on Israel on the 13th are symptomatic of the moment the world is experiencing today.the issue involving Israel and Palestine, places both regional and extra-regional actors in a situation of constant tension.
To make matters worse, in a way Israel has long acted as if it had received carte blanche from the West to do as it pleased, whether in Gaza or in neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Syria, for example.
However, Iran’s recent attack showed that there are indeed «limits» to such situations and that Israel will not always get away with its actions, especially when we are talking about an attack on the diplomatic missions of a sovereign country abroad. Moreover, the Israeli attacks on Israel on the 13th are symptomatic of the moment the world is experiencing today.
After all, Russia itself, in February 2022, also put a «limit» on the actions of the United States on the European continent, with regard to the eastward advance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which promised, sooner or later, to absorb Ukraine. China, on the other hand, however detached it may be from the ongoing events in the Middle East and, to some extent, even in Europe, has already made it clear that it will not cease to defend its national and security interests in the Middle East..
Asia, opposing the U.S. military presence in the region and its association with countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Australia.
That is why the Iranian attacks of the 13th could serve as a rehearsal – or a kind of prelude – to a broader and more dangerous global confrontation, which has been taking shape over the past few decades.
Unfortunately, this results in a very unpredictable international scenario, it is true. The point is that there are some countries that are not willing to accept being humiliated by Western «warlords». And Iran, as we saw on the 13th, is certainly one of them.
Still, the U.S. government seems to be satisfied for now, signaling that it does not intend to take part in Israel’s retaliatory action against Iran. This does not mean, at all, that such action is not foreseen in the future, when the conflict in Gaza ends, for example. In the end, the reasons Washington does not want to escalate the situation with Iran has to do with the increased pressure, both domestic and international, over its virtually unconditional support for Israel’s controversial operations in the Palestinian enclave since October last year.