Latest International News Today: Middle East Facing Dangerous Escalation of Hostilities Between Israel and Iran
There is nothing new about the open hostility and shadowy confrontation between Israel and Iran and over the years each has tried to hurt the other, oftentimes successfully. However, the current series of hostilities appears to be headed for the most serious showdown between the two countries till date.
It all began with an Israeli precision strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria on 01 April 2024 where a number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders were killed as per top 10 news today aired across India and the world.
Source: Theglobeandmail.com
Needless to say that this kind of a strike by Israel on the diplomatic premises of one country located in a third country, is a blatant violation of international law. At the same time, questions are being asked about the presence of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commanders at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. So, what were they doing there?
Clearly, the Iranian embassy in Damascus is not a normal place for these Revolutionary Guard commanders to be in and that is a leading question asked by observers on today news paper.
Israeli sources are not even asking what these Revolutionary Guard commanders were doing at the Iranian embassy in Damascus. They are straightaway alleging that these Revolutionary Guard commanders were coordinating Hezbollah rocket attacks in northern Israel from the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Did the Israelis believe that Iran would not retaliate or did they know very well that Iran would retaliate on a scale that is big enough to match the Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus?
The strike by Israel could escalate into a dangerous situation
That is an open question being asked by certain geopolitical observers who are suspicious about Israel and its intentions reported by media outlets airing top 10 news today.
On the other hand there are other observers who point out that Iranian backing of Hamas and Hezbollah with arms and ammunition to attack Israel has been going on for years now. They also point out that Israeli retaliation against Iranian interests both within and outside Iran has been quite consistent during the same time.
Hence, they say that there is nothing unusual about this attack by Israel on the Iranian mission in Damascus. Israeli intelligence is generally of top quality barring a few goof ups like the one on 07 October 2023 when terrorists of Hamas carried out a successful attack on few a border villages in Israel, killed around 2,000 people and kidnapped around 300 people.
This time Israeli intelligence was back to its elements as they got information of top Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders inside the Iranian embassy in Damascus and promptly took action.
Most news reports on today news paper say that attacking targets at the embassy of an enemy country located in a third country is rather unusual and is a clear violation of international law.
In terms of outcome, it was a major success for Israel as this strike resulted in the death of some senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders, who Israel believes were coordinating Hezbollah attacks on Israel from Lebanon.
Source: i24News.tv
Massive Iranian retaliation fails to penetrate Israeli air defence
Immediately after the Israeli strike on the Revolutionary Guard commanders in Damascus, Iran announced that it will retaliate at a place and time of its choosing.
Eventually on 13 April 2024, Iran made the retaliatory attack on Israel with over 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones and around 150 ballistic missiles making up a total of over 350 hostile flying objects fired at Israel.
Israeli military sources claimed that over 99% of these Iranian drones and rockets have been shot down and the few that managed to land in Israel could do just negligible damage with no loss of life as reported in most media outlets that broadcast or publish top 10 news today.
Israel has taken serious offence against the massive and direct Iranian aerial attack on Israeli territory, which again is unusual and something that Iran has never done before.
Immediately after the massive Iranian attack, the Israeli War Cabinet went into a long meeting and at the end of it, one of the members who attended the meeting, said that Israel will “exact a price from Iran in a way and time that suits us.”
Source: CBC.ca
In this fast-aggravating situation in the Middle East, the United States and other friendly western countries are advising Israel not to escalate the hostilities into a full-blown war with Iran.
A full-blown war between Israel and Iran can be something really dangerous for the entire region as both these countries do not share a land or maritime border. That means, such a war could involve third countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan if it escalates seriously. This could be disastrous not just for the Middle East but also for adjoining regions and that is not something anybody is ready for at this point. The world is already enduring the consequences of the devastating war in Ukraine and its mishandling by the US-led NATO. In this situation, another major war in the Middle East involving multiple countries needs to be avoided by all means.