Iran

Calls for De-Escalation Mount as Israel Plans to ‘Exact a Price From Iran’

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Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Iranians gather in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ retaliatory attack on Israel on April 14, 2024 in Tehran.
 (Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

“Now is the time for restraint and diplomacy, not more unconditional support for military escalation,” said one advocate.

Since Iran on Saturday sent hundreds of drones and missiles—which were mostly shot down—toward Israel to retaliate for an Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria, anti-war voices around the world have called for de-escalation efforts.

“We are deeply concerned that Iranian retaliatory strikes following Israel’s April 1 attack on its diplomatic compound in Damascus will move the region even further from the path to peace and security,” said Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council. “The launch of a significant attack on Israeli territory from Iran is without recent precedent and, unless there is a serious effort towards deconfliction, may confirm that Iran, Israel, and the United States are in the midst of the regional war that so many have feared.”

“We call on the Biden administration to exercise the United States’ considerable diplomatic leverage to restrain Israel and Iran to ensure this conflict does not spiral further out of control,” he continued. “Far too many innocents have already suffered in the war that began October 7, and the cycle of violence and inhumanity must be broken.”

“What’s at stake is nothing less than stopping a regionwide war in the Middle East, which the United States would surely be drawn into.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel with an assault of the Gaza Strip called plausibly genocidal by the International Court of Justice. Israeli forces have killed at least 33,729 people, wounded 76,371 more, and obliterated civilian infrastructure, displacing most of the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the besieged enclave.

Blasting Iran’s Saturday attack on Israel as “another unacceptable turn in a dangerous escalation spiral,” Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti said that and U.S. President Joe Biden and senior administration officials “must use all their diplomatic heft and leverage to prevent further violence.”

“What’s at stake is nothing less than stopping a regionwide war in the Middle East, which the United States would surely be drawn into. There are no military solutions to this crisis—only diplomatic ones,” she stressed. “The Israeli government’s destructive and failing campaign in Gaza has driven violent instability throughout the Middle East, which was further exacerbated by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reckless attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus. And the Iranian government’s own inexcusable retaliation, which we utterly condemn, has put the lives of people across the region—including communities in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran—at terrible risk.”

While repeatedly urging the the Israel Defense Forces to more precisely target militants in Gaza over the past six months, the Biden administration has also opposed multiple United Nations cease-fire resolution and sent more weapons to Israeli troops while pushing for a support package worth more than $14 billion—on top of the $3.8 billion in annual military aid that the United States gives to Netanyahu’s government.

“Preventing a regional war must be the top imperative and this may mean that Joe Biden must finally say ‘no’ to Israel and Netanyahu,” argued Abdi. “Biden’s bearhug approach towards Israel has completely failed and has put the U.S. at the risk of entering a war of choice—Netanyahu’s choice. Israel launched a military attack on a diplomatic compound, violating international law and all but guaranteeing an Iranian response.”

“Netanyahu appears eager to extend and expand the disastrous war in Gaza and draw the U.S. into a regional war and, by continually abetting the war and enabling Israel’s worst instincts, Biden may have granted Netanyahu’s wish,” he said. “Now is the time for restraint and diplomacy, not more unconditional support for military escalation. President Biden must put his foot down to do what’s necessary to prevent further military engagement between Israel and Iran and to demand a cease-fire to end the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.”

Israel this weekend fended off most of the Iranian drones and missiles with help from Jordan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Benny Gantz—a member of the Israeli War Cabinet with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—said Sunday that his nation now intends to “build a regional coalition and exact a price from Iran, in a way and at a time that suits us.”

Biden publicly reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel” but a White House official also confirmed to Reuters that during a call with Netanyahu, the president made clear the U.S. will not join any military offensives against Iran.

Denouncing the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ retaliation against Israel, Center for International Policy president and CEO Nancy Okail said Sunday that “escalatory actions by both countries threaten to fan the flames of conflict throughout the region, endangering the lives of millions.”

“We appreciate the apparent advance diplomatic efforts by the United States and others behind the scenes—as well U.S., U.K., and Jordanian participation in air defense measures—to minimize the impact of Iran’s attack,” she continued. “Prioritizing civilian protection and de-escalation was clearly the right approach and should continue to serve as the international community’s objectives in the critical days and weeks ahead.”

Okail emphasized that “achieving those goals requires not only arresting the escalation of violence between Israel and Iran, but securing a cease-fire in Gaza that halts the killing of civilians, releases the hostages, allows vital humanitarian aid to actually reach those who need it, and lowers tensions in the region. The continued unconditional supply to the Netanyahu government of the arms it is using in Gaza undermines those objectives, as well as U.S. and international law.”

“Netanyahu’s repeated disregard of U.S. red lines in Gaza, moves to deepen permanent occupation in the Palestinian territory, and escalation with Iran are destabilizing the entire region,” she added. “With American forces already drawn into hostilities with the Iranian-backed Houthis and actively engaging Iranian missiles and drones, President Biden cannot afford to let the extremist prime minister continue to have a harmful, undue influence on the course of events. Hopefully, the president’s efforts have averted a wider regional war with Iran; we urge him to bring that same level of effort to save the people of Gaza.”

Trita Parsi, an expert on Iran and the Middle East and EVP at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that “if you give Biden (deservingly) credit for having helped prevent the region from falling off the cliff last night, you must also give him credit for helping bring the region to the edge of the cliff in the first place by refusing to restrain Israel and blocking a cease-fire.”

Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingCalls for De-Escalation Mount as Israel Plans to ‘Exact a Price From Iran’

Government drags Britain a step closer to war in the Middle East

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-drags-britain-a-step-closer-to-war-in-the-middle-east

People take part in a pro-Palestine march in central London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, April 13, 2024

THE British government dragged the nation a step closer to war in the Middle East after the Prime Minister admitted today it had sent RAF fighter jets to shoot down Iranian drones and missiles.

The escalation of the Iranian and Israeli tensions over the weekend prompted calls for “a halt to this terrifying slide to wider conflict” in addition to the continuing demands by tens of thousands of protesters for a ceasefire in Gaza.

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that while supporting “all measures designed to restore calm” and prevent a wider regional war, “we continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of our other partners in the region.”

And shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper supported the government’s decision to involve the RAF.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-drags-britain-a-step-closer-to-war-in-the-middle-east

Continue ReadingGovernment drags Britain a step closer to war in the Middle East

Green Party response to the Iranian attack on Israel 

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Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Following news of the Iranian attack on Israel and the involvement of UK aircraft in Israel’s defence, Green Party co-leader, Carla Denyer, has urged the UK not to be dragged into a Middle East war. She said: 

“The Green Party condemns Iran’s attacks against Israel, which were targeted on civilian as well as military targets.  This represents a concerning escalation of the current conflict in the Middle East. We call on all parties now to find ways to de-escalate this conflict, which risks spreading across the region. 

“We are concerned by the use of British aircraft in the night’s events.  We question why Britain should be involved in this confrontation, where there is a risk that we could become embroiled in a regional war.  The record of Afghanistan and Iraq suggests that involvement in such conflict brings great risks, especially when the military and strategic objectives are unclear.” 

Denyer also questioned at what level the decision to engage UK defence forces was made: 

“I am deeply concerned about how this decision to deepen our involvement was made and in what further action the government proposes to involve UK armed forces. Britain’s military involvement must be scrutinised and debated by parliament. We should not allow ourselves to be dragged into a Middle East war. 

Continue ReadingGreen Party response to the Iranian attack on Israel 

‘A Declaration of War’: Israel Accused of Bombing Iranian Consulate in Syria

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Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Emergency and security personnel gather at the site of strikes which hit a building next to the Iranian Embassy in Syria’s capital Damascus, on April 1, 2024.
 (Photo: Maher al Mounes/AFP via Getty Images)

One observer said Israel is “trying to provoke a war with Iran to get the U.S. directly involved.”

Iranian and Syrian officials on Monday accused Israel of bombing Iran’s consulate in Damascus, an attack one expert called a “war-abetting escalation” that U.S. President Joe Biden “claimed he was preventing” in the Middle East.

Seven people including Iranian diplomats and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) senior commander Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi were killed in the airstrike, which according to the BBC occurred at approximately 5:00 pm local time and flattened the multistory building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in the Syrian capital’s Mezzeh district.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian described the strike as “a violation of all international obligations and conventions.” Faisal Mekdad, his Syrian counterpart, condemned what he called a “heinous terrorist attack.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1774841744036597877

Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack. Israel has increased airstrikes targeting IRGC and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants inside Syria since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. Israeli strikes against Hezbollah have also killed hundreds of militants and civilians in Lebanon.

Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, called the consulate attack a “significant escalation in tensions.”

“This attack is viewed by some in Iran as a declaration of war by Israel against Iran,” Azizi wrote on social media. “It represents a shift from previous engagements, directly hitting Iranian soil represented by its consulate in Syria—as opposed to targeting IRGC officers in Syrian sites.”

“In earlier stages, Israel would refrain from targeting IRGC officers—only proxies and arms shipments,” he continued. “Since the Gaza war, a shift was already there to target high-ranking Iranian commanders. Some sources claim the attack was a response to an assault on an Israeli ship last night at the port of Eilat, attributed to Iraqi militias. This suggests another new rule of engagement by Israel: direct retaliation against Iran for any attacks by its proxies.”

Azizi added that the strike “is also seen as a message to both Iran and [President Bashar] al-Assad’s regime in Syria: Israel’s capability and willingness to escalate its response to the presence of Iranian forces in Syria.”

Numerous experts including Azizi wondered whether Israel informed the United States ahead of the attack. A White House spokesperson said that Biden is aware of reports attributing the strike to Israel and that his “team is looking into it.”

Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said on social media that “this is the exact type of conduct that usually prompts the U.S. to label a country a pariah or rogue state.”

“The U.S. accuses such states of seeking to destroy the ‘rules-based order,'” Parsi noted. “But so far, Biden has acquiesced to Israel’s conduct in this area as well as all other aspects of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza.”

Parsi accused Israel of “seeking to either destroy these norms or create a new normal in which it—much like the U.S.—will be untouchable above these laws and norms.”

He also called the Damascus strike “the kind of war-abetting escalation Biden claimed he was preventing.”

The U.S. has also bombed Syria—as well as Yemen, Iraq, and Somalia—since October 7.

Palestinian Policy Network fellow Tariq Kenney-Shawa said: “What the Biden administration means by ‘taking every measure to avoid regional escalation’ is that they’re making sure only Israel is allowed to escalate. Deploying aircraft carriers, airstrikes in Yemen/Syria/Iraq, all of that is to make sure Israel can provoke but no one can respond.”

While Parsi wondered if Israel attacked Iran’s consulate—its sovereign territory—to elicit a response to justify a larger war, Antiwar.com editor Dave DeCamp went further, accusing Israel of “trying to provoke a war with Iran to get the U.S. directly involved.”

Iranian journalist Mona Hojat Ansari wrote for the Tehran Times that the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “believes that by plunging the region into a maelstrom of chaos and entangling the United States in another pointless war in West Asia that would drain American resources, it may find a chance to survive as an apartheid establishment.”

“The attack on Iran’s consulate should particularly raise a red flag for Washington,” she added, “as it demonstrates Israel’s readiness to ignite the entire region, even if it means that the U.S. and all its traditional allies in the region would suffer devastating consequences.”

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘A Declaration of War’: Israel Accused of Bombing Iranian Consulate in Syria

US Hawks Demand War With Iran After Attack on American Troops in Jordan

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) walks through the Senate subway after a vote in the U.S. Capitol on January 9, 2024.  (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

“After years of working to block and undermine diplomatic alternatives, these people may be closer than ever to realizing their dream of war with Iran.”

Warhawks in the United States wasted no time agitating for direct military conflict with Iran after a drone attack on a military base just inside Jordan’s border with Syria on Sunday killed three American troops and injured dozens more.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress called on U.S. President Joe Biden to quickly respond with strikes inside Iran, which denied any connection to Sunday’s attack.

“The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a longtime supporter of war with Iran. “Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) called Iran “an existential threat to the U.S. and our allies in the region” and said Tehran “must be held accountable for the murder of three U.S. soldiers.”

That sentiment was echoed by a number of lawmakers, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

United Against Nuclear Iran, a group chaired by former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, also demanded “a decisive U.S. military response against targets inside Iran.”

“The U.S. should attack and destroy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military and intelligence targets in Iran, as well as missile and drone bases where the Iranian regime’s proxies are trained,” the group said.

“Those who have consistently counseled only violence to address the crisis unleashed on October 7 should be ashamed of the disastrous outcomes they have so far reaped.”

Biden claimed in a statement Sunday that “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” were responsible for Sunday’s drone attack, but acknowledged that the U.S. is “still gathering the facts.”

“Have no doubt—we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing,” the president said.

U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East have faced increasingly frequent attacks since Israel launched its large-scale war on the Gaza Strip following the deadly Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7. Sunday marked the first time since October that American troops have been killed in a Middle East attack.

The Biden administration has blamed the attacks on Iran-aligned militias and responded with airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, intensifying concerns that the U.S. is fueling a regionwide conflict. The administration has also launched a series of unauthorized strikes in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Despite the above, the Pentagon continues to insist that the U.S. is “not at war in the Middle East.”

Contrary to the growing calls for a military response to attacks on U.S. troops, analysts and progressive lawmakers have argued that the only way to halt the escalating violence in the region is to secure a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces armed by the U.S. have killed more than 26,000 people in less than four months. The Biden administration has repeatedly stonewalled international efforts to secure a cease-fire.

“I am heartbroken by the loss of the servicemembers killed in Jordan,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), a U.S. Senate candidate, wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “Like I feared, the violence is spiraling out of control. President Biden must demand a cease-fire in Gaza now.”

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, warned in a statement Sunday that “the U.S. and Iran are now closer to the brink of being pulled into a full-blown regional war by the vortex of violence that was unleashed by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th and Israel’s assault on Gaza.”

“Those who have consistently counseled only violence to address the crisis unleashed on October 7 should be ashamed of the disastrous outcomes they have so far reaped,” said Abdi. “We are disgusted by calls for more escalation from opportunists like Senators Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and John Cornyn who are urging yet again for the U.S. to directly attack Iran. After years of working to block and undermine diplomatic alternatives, these people may be closer than ever to realizing their dream of war with Iran.”

“President Biden must show leadership and recognize that there is no military solution to this crisis that has only been expanded and prolonged by military escalation and a dearth of diplomacy,” he continued. “The president must calibrate his response so as not to condemn the U.S. and region to an intractable war and instead work to end this conflict. The most impactful thing Biden can do to prevent further deaths across the region and prevent a full-blown war is to secure an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Palestine.”

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, similarly argued that “to truly protect our troops and avoid both war and more needless American deaths, Biden should begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and Syria and press Israel for a cease-fire, since its slaughter in Gaza is fueling four fronts that put the U.S. at risk.”

“There will be understandable calls for revenge and counterstrikes,” Parsi said. “Biden will almost certainly go down that path. Know that this is how America gets dragged into endless war. Retaliations, which in the moment may feel justified by the unacceptable attacks of these militias, put us on a path toward a war that doesn’t serve our interests and that we cannot afford—one whose victory we cannot define and whose exit we cannot envision.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingUS Hawks Demand War With Iran After Attack on American Troops in Jordan