Hamas’s leader is dead, Iran vows revenge: can anything stop all-out war in the Middle East?
Hamas’s leader is dead, Iran vows revenge: can anything stop all-out war in the Middle East?
The assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran humiliated Iran’s leaders, dashed hopes of a ceasefire and left the heavily armed nations of the Middle East moving inexorably closer to an all-out war they all claim not to want
If Iran’s newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was hoping for a honeymoon period after his inauguration last week, he must be sadly disappointed. Less than 12 hours after Pezeshkian was sworn in, an explosion, reportedly caused by a remotely controlled bomb, shook an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) compound in central Tehran. The target: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, an honoured guest at the inauguration, and one of the Middle East’s most wanted. The bomb under the bed killed Haniyeh instantly. Honeymoon over.
The Haniyeh assassination, attributed to Israel and not denied in Jerusalem, has scrambled all those hopes. Pezeshkian finds himself in the eye of an international storm that analysts warn could lead to all-out war, engulfing the Middle East.
Infuriated by an audacious attack that humiliated him, his country and its elite armed forces, Khamenei – Iran’s ultimate authority – is said to have ordered preparations for direct military retaliation against Israel. Avenging Haniyeh’s death was “our duty”, Khamenei said. Pezeshkian had no choice but to meekly go along. Now the world waits to see what Iran will do. So much for a fresh start.
Iran’s next step may be decisive in determining whether the Middle East plunges into chaos. Its pivotal position should come as no surprise. Its gradual emergence as the region’s pre-eminent power has accelerated in the wake of 7 October. Iran’s anti-Israeli, anti-American “axis of resistance”, embracing militant Islamist groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and ever more openly backed by China and Russia, is now a big force challenging the established western-led order.
Fucking religious nutjobs...
How about taking about the elephant in the room that is British + French colonialism plus the establishment of a genocidal apartheid settler colony along with US driven regime changes through funding terrorist groups or just outright invasions?
It’s so damn lazy to blame all of this on religion.
this is more than that
@girlfreddy Netanyahu not going to be happy until he triggers global thermonuclear war.
And he'll probably also be fine with a thermonuclear wasteland as long as he's presiding over his part of it
Would you like to play a game?
The US could, but it would require imposing actual conditions on Israel.
Killing the negotiator... Zionists never wanted peace, not even in 1923.
Fuck me that was horrific.
I guess that motherfucker never took that oath he spoke of.
Here's another quote where he was more honest [emphasis mine]:
[It is the] iron law of every colonizing movement, a law which knows of no exceptions, a law which existed in all times and under all circumstances. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else – or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempts to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not “difficult”, not “dangerous” but IMPOSSIBLE! … Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonialization.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ze'ev_Jabotinsky
Yet, nearly half the comments here blame the Palestinians for the natural response Jabotinsky accurately predicted.
Yes, Iran's lack of direct force projection capability.
The thing is Israel is trying real hard to get Jordan and Syria to ally with Iran.
Ceasefire end of this week! Trust me bro!
It's not going to be war, Iran has to retaliate but they are not going to escalate things. I would expect a similar response to response for the attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria.
I agree, but I'm sure some of the USN is itching to pull Operation Preying Mantis 2, MOAB Boogaloo
Still doubt it's gonna escalate tbh.
They say Houthis are an Iranian proxy and yet they've done more to Israel than whatever Iran has tried directly.
What's saying that's not intentional? using a proxy to fight a battle is nothing new.
Yes. That's how proxies work.
Well, yeah, if you have to do the things yourself and take direct responsibility for them, then your proxies aren't very useful
The middle east has been warring for millennia. You can't stop them
You’re leaving out crucial pieces of information. Stop “them?” The world superpowers have meddled in, armed, and essentially used the Middle East as playgrounds for their international power struggles. So the entire world has been warring for millennia because going back to the times before that was the case, the rest of the world was fighting wars on our own turf. We just moved all of our wars there.
And this is no different. This is largely if not entirely propped up by “west vs east.” It’s just a sphere of influence for the rest of the world, and serves as a staging ground for wars we don’t want on our own doorstep. Nukes saw to that, I think. The “we’re not the ones at war” security blanket stops the nukes from dropping, I guess.
You get downvoted out of emotional reaction but you're right. It's silly how many young people think this is all new or even fixable. You could eliminate every Jewish person from the middle east and Gaza and the people left will just start killing each other instead. It's always been tribal in the middle east and it hasn't changed in 2024. One tribe gains power and oppresses the rest, rinse and repeat.
This is such a wildly naive and orientalist view of the Middle East. If you actually studied the modern history of the region you would know that since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire western powers have ceaselessly meddled in the affairs of the people there.
They’ve supported coups in order to overthrow democratic governments. They funded right wing jihadis including the precursors to and allies of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. They’ve enabled war crimes left and right. They even invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and continues to bomb the whole region with an extensive and secretive drone program. Even now the west continues to defend authoritarian and genocidal regimes like Saudi Arabia or Israel as long as they serve their western interests regardless of their destabilizing effect.
The reality is you have no idea what a Middle East would look like without western intervention. To pretend that you do only reveals your complete ignorance and racist arrogance.
Based on what? The Muslims, [Palestinian] Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Polytheistic Nomads, and the Druze living in Southern Lebanon seemed to be in peace a few decades ago.
The only way to truly stop it is to level all of the holy sights. Even then, they might fight over the dirt.
Don't make the mistake of confusing a moment in history with a "natural" affinity for wars. Humans period have been at war from millenia, not just Middle East humans. There's nothing in their genomes that makes them more belligerent than other peoples around the world.
Don't believe me? Look up the grand total of years of peace time in the US since it was created. Look at the death toll of both world wars. Look at the history of Europe, or that of precolombian America, of China...
Now, if the West, Russia and friends could stop meddling with their affairs...
Are you denying that there seems to be a particular concentration of conflict in the middle East?
The only reason why the US, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran can keep fueling warlords to continue their proxy wars is because they're already at each other's throats. Some tribal warfare that's been around since the bloody middle ages.
Russia and America pulling back their assets is not going to miraculously create piece.
No it hasn't, only since WW1 due to Western meddling.
Europe has a history of more brutal and longer wars. They even brought some wars our way during the Crusades.
challenging the established western-led order.
Why should the order be western led?
That's the same reaction you get when you introduce human rights to a lot of non-western countries(LGBTQ, abortion...)
Because they're the only ones wanting peace. Every one else would prefer if a lot of people died.
Well yes, America can stop it any time really...
🤭
I'd love for the US to go completely hands-off the middle east if only just to stop comments like this up that seem to think one country can somehow be responsible for tons of other countries meddling in the same area.
I mean, I want that so people will stop being ripped apart by us-made explosives, tax money stops being wasted, and focus more on improving things for the people within it's own borders and making it more inclusive to outsiders, but stopping comments like that is a nice little bonus.
😂 Do we tell them?