It has officially begun and there can be no withholding it. Israel has moved to strike key sites of political power and military importance in Iran to spark a war. Both Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the war between the two long time enemies entered a sixth day. Make no mistake if this unprecedented conflict escalates the repercussions could shatter the fragile stability and regional order of the Middle East. Israel’s military reported that two barrages of Iranian missiles were launched towards the Zionist state in the first two hours of Wednesday morning. The Israeli Defence Force intercepted the missiles over Tel Aviv leading to the missiles exploding before hitting their target.
Israel told residents in a southwestern area of Tehran to evacuate so its air force could strike Iranian military installations. Iranian news websites said Israel was attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the east of the capital. Iranian news websites said Israel was also attacking a university linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the country’s east, and the Khojir ballistic missile facility near Tehran, which was also targeted by Israeli airstrikes last October. Meanwhile, explosions were heard in Tehran early on Wednesday as intense Israeli airstrikes again targeted Iran’s capital in a conflict that a human rights group said had killed at least 585 people across Iran and wounded 1,326 others.
The Israelis are looking to cripple the Islamic Republic’s defence capabilities, so as to encourage the United States under President Donald Trump to deploy their military to Iran. Washington was closer than anyone could expect when former US President George W Bush was in the Oval Office between the faithful years of 2001 and 2008 in the process of opening a war on a third front after Afghanistan and Iraq during the War on Terror. Now after some initial back and forth over the prospect of invasion under the administrations of US then Presidents Barack Obama, Trump’s first presidency (2017 – 2020) and Joe Biden, Israel under Prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu is taking the steps. Regardless of whether Washington will follow, it is the ordinary people of Iran on the ground (as usual) who will pay the price.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Capitol Hill this afternoon that Trump is “perfectly within his authority” in the steps he has taken to deal with Iran. Asked by NBC News whether he’d allow a war powers resolution to come to the floor for a vote, Thune said that if the conflict between Iran and Israel extends “for some period of time, there could be a more fulsome discussion about what the role of Congress should be and whether or not we need to take action. But I think, right now, let’s hope and pray for the best outcome, the best solution,” he said. “And in my view, that would be Iran coming to the negotiating table and agreeing to end their nuclear program.”
Tehran may not be that eager to consent to ending its nuclear technology program for peaceful purposes. However, given that it has seen the infrastructure of this programme crippled and the scientists and security officials who worked on the program killed they may have to sue for peace: call for a truce and ask for a new agreement regarding the continuity of research of nuclear energy for peaceful means. But this sounds like wishful thinking on the ground. The Israelis want to not just cripple Iran’s program for peaceful nuclear energy they want to be the catalyst for the downfall of the Islamic Republic’s political establishment. The US Congress is largely in the pockets of the Israeli Lobby and may vote for Trump as Commander in Chief of the US armed forces to launch a military intervention on behalf of the Israelis.
The question remains if Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his colleagues including potential successors are overthrown what will replace them? As events unfold the truth will reveal itself.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
