Imani said Iran also wanted to seize what it saw as a “golden opportunity” to retaliate on such a scale as Israel has been widely criticized over Gaza, including from its key allies such as the United States.
Iran’s efforts to bolster its regional hegemony through its proxies and nuclear capabilities have angered traditional Sunni Arab governments in the region, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf states. The Islamic Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 1979 was originally aimed at regional revolution and overthrowing these governments, most of which were monarchies or military dictatorships. Therefore, Israel restricted the power of Iran, a non-Arab Shiite country, and Arab countries silently Support, including Israel’s war against Hamas.
At present, the risk of regional tensions escalating has increased significantly. During the Gaza war, Iran has been careful to limit major attacks by proxies around Israel and avoid large-scale Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel and is considered the main deterrent to preventing Israel from directly attacking Iran, especially its nuclear and missile programmes.
Bruno Tertreis, deputy director of the French Foundation for Strategic Studies, said Israel should not respond given Iran’s new isolation after the attack. “But a threshold has been crossed,” he said. He continued, “The threshold for a large-scale Israeli attack on Iranian soil, which was always an extreme option for Israel no matter what commentators said, has now been lowered.”
Netanyahu, who has been warning about the threat from Iran for two decades and faces intense pressure from within his shaky far-right coalition, may choose to strike back more forcefully, either by targeting Iran directly or against Hezbollah. But Washington received no warning of the Damascus attack and may now insist on prior consultations.
