Iran believes that its direct attack on Israel opens a new stage in the Middle East, in which it will hit the territory of the Jewish State in response to attacks on its interests, an extreme that experts question.
After decades of waging a covert war with cyberattacks, assassinations, sabotage or indirect blows in the region, Tehran has set a “new equation” with the attack with hundreds of missiles and drones once morest Israel on Saturdayan unprecedented event until now, according to senior officials in the country.
“The equation has changed. “Attacks on Iranian personnel or assets by the regime (Israel) will be met with direct and severe responses,” Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy chief of staff to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, said in X following the attack on Israel.
“The significance of the victorious Operation True Promise (the attack) is that the era of strategic patience is over,” said Jamshidi, who in some ways acts as an unofficial spokesman for Raisi.
Jamshidi was the first source to announce the normalization of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023.
«Strategic patience»
Iran believes that it has so far demonstrated what it has called “strategic patience.” and which consists of avoiding a direct conflict and responding to what it considers Israeli aggression through its allies in the Middle East.
These attacks include the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, in which seven Revolutionary Guards were killed, including the head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, as well as two other generals.
But there have also been various attacks on Syrian soil that have claimed the lives of at least eight other members of the Revolutionary Guard since the beginning of the year.
This elite military body whose function is to defend the Islamic Republic founded by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 also announced the new stage.
“We decided to create a new equation. From now on, if the Zionist regime attacks our interests, property, personalities and citizens at any time, We will retaliate from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” “The commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, told local television.
The military official said that Operation True Promise is a “clear and prominent manifestation of this equation.”
In fact, it was the Revolutionary Guard that carried out the attack once morest Israel, which Tehran claims was directed once morest an Israeli intelligence centre and air base from which the fighter planes used to attack the Iranian consulate took off.
Doubts regarding the new equation
Raffaele Mauriello, an Iran specialist and professor at Allame Tabatabai University in Tehran, believes that it was a “spectacular” and “media-friendly” attack that had the message “we can attack you directly.”
But he does not believe that we are on the threshold of a new era in the Middle East with more direct Iranian attacks.
“I think it is a position and I think there will not be any more direct attacks,” the expert told EFE.
Mauriello believes that if this were the case, it would be a “war” and not a “conflict” as it has been until now.
But he believes it all depends on whether Iran is directly attacked by Israel, which is considering a response to Saturday’s attack.
*With information from EFE*
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2024-07-21 07:08:00
