Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Expecting a favorable Republican nominee Donald Trump’s return to the White House after the November 5 presidential election, Israel on Saturday started ‘softening’ the Shia-ruled Iran before a likely full-scale war, with tacit support from the Sunni Arabs around the Gulf of Persia.
Before escalating the war three weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had, directly addressing Tehran, assured that Israel meant no harm to the Iranian masses but was against the Ayatollahs’ regressive regime, and warned of attacks at the time of its choosing. As a warning, it started a cyber war against Iran two weeks ago.
On early Saturday, citing continuous Iranian attacks from multiple fronts since October 7, and affirming Israel’s right to retaliate, the Jewish state’s armed forces launched airstrikes on military targets in Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault on October 1, the media, quoting officials, reported.
Although Israel used nearly 100 fighter jets and hit 20 targets, Iran admitted only two soldiers’ death.
Israel’s military described the attack as “precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” without elaborating.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7 – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” an Israeli military statement said. “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
The sound of explosions could be heard in Tehran, with state-controlled media there initially acknowledging the blasts and saying some of the sounds came from air defense systems around the capital city.
Early reports said that at least seven explosions could be heard, which rattled the surrounding area. Also, the state-run media in Iran-supported Syria described its air defenses as targeting “hostile targets” there as well.
Iran has launched two ballistic missile attacks on Israel in recent months amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that began with the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel also has launched a ground invasion of Lebanon.
The Israeli strike happened just as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was returning to the US after a tour of the Middle East where he and other US officials warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and exclude nuclear sites in Iran.
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement that “we understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran” and referred reporters to the Israeli government for more details on their operation.
Israel had vowed to hit Iran hard following a massive Iranian missile barrage on October 1. Iran said its barrage was in response to deadly Israeli attacks against its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, and it has promised to respond to any retaliatory strikes.
Israel and Iran, friends from 1949, have been bitter foes since at least the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel considers a Shia fundamentalist-ruled Iran to be its greatest threat, citing its leaders’ calls for Israel’s destruction, their support for anti-Israel militant groups, and the country’s nuclear program.
The two countries, separated by a distance of over 1,000 km, have been locked in a yearslong shadow war. A suspected Israeli assassination campaign killed top Iranian nuclear scientists. Iranian nuclear installations have been hacked or sabotaged, all in mysterious attacks blamed on Israel.
Iran has also been blamed for a series of attacks on shipping in the Middle East in recent years, which later grew into the attacks by Yemen’s Tehran-supported Houthi rebels on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
But since Hamas’ October 7 attack, the battle has increasingly moved into the open. Israel turned its attention to Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into the Jewish nation since the war in Gaza began. Throughout the year, several top Iranian military figures were killed in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon. Besides, Israel also eliminated most of Hamas and Hezbollah leadership as the toll in the ongoing war in the Middle East mounted to more than 45,000.
Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel in April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic post. The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel — under pressure from Western countries to show restraint — responded with a limited strike.
But after Iran’s early October missile strike, Israel promised a tougher response.
Jerusalem is likely to stop its Iran adventure only after a regime change.