The Israeli counter-counterattack
The Israeli counter-counterattack
...which hopefully settles the dispute between Iran and Israel.
As reported by several media outlets (e.g. Al Mayadeen and The Guardian), in the early morning of today, 19th April 2024, just a few hours after the failed UNSC resolution to give Palestine full membership status at the UN (due to US veto, as usual), explosions were heard in Isfahan (Iran), in whose province nuclear sites are located (though they were not damaged), not far from its international airport - in fact all air traffic was temporarily suspended in Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tehran.
Immediately there were speculations about an Israeli retaliation to the Iranian response to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus (Syria): within minutes American outlets were already talking about Israeli missiles hitting a military site within Iran, whereas Iranian agencies reported that air defences were activated and that intercepted all “targets”, without specifying the nature of these targets.
Within the first hour, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that “air defenses were activated [also] in Tabriz, Iran, resulting in a series of explosions”, apparently “several kilometers away from an oil refinery” (as reported by Al Mayadeen), and that “no aerial objects hit ground targets in Tabriz”, a locality ~800 km north-west of Isfahan; while US officials confirmed that “Israel carried out an operation against Iran”, as reported by The Guardian:
At this point Iran reported that “No external aggression against Iran was launched on Friday” and that what was “being circulated about an Israeli attack are lies and are part of a misinformation war. The complicit American media is waging a proxy war of disinformation on behalf of the Israeli occupation” (Al Mayadeen).
In the meantime Israeli officials kept mum, except for Itamar Ben Gvir, Israeli lawyer and politician who has been serving as the Minister of National Security since 2022, who tweeted a one word post on X that roughly translates to “feeble”, possibly referring to the recent Israeli attack on Iranian soil. This post sparked reactions from several people, such as the Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, who wrote the following post on X:
Never before a minister has done such a heavy damage to the country’s security, its image, and its international status. In an unforgivable tweet of one word, Ben Gvir managed to sneer and shame Israel from Tehran to Washington.
All this seems to suggest that indeed the attack on Iranian soil was arranged by Israel, though most likely carried out by its secret services or proxies within Iranian borders or just outside (i.e. from neighbouring countries, such as Iraq, where remains of a missile were found) and mostly with the use of small drones, as later confirmed by Iranian authorities, and above all with no casualties and no significant losses/damages, as reported even by CNN, after analyzing satellite images.
After all, even Israeli media reported that the “retaliation in Iran was merely to waive its own obligation”, to quote Al Mayadeen.
The following tidbit reported by The Guardian is also quite indicative:
…though US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, repeatedly refused to confirm the Israeli counter-counterattack, only declaring that the Outlaw US Empire was not involved in any offensive operation and that instead it was trying to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East, as reported by The Guardian.
As Caitlin Johnstone wrote in the following article, hopefully this may have settled the dispute between Iran and Israel, but it may signal that the Israel’s planned assault on Rafah may start soon:
Iran’s retaliatory strike for Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus reportedly delayed Israel’s planned assault on Rafah, where according to CNN the IDF was ready to begin dropping leaflets on Monday. Israel has spent the last six months kettling the population of the Gaza Strip southward into Rafah, so now it’s extremely densely populated and a full-on attack could be deadlier than anything we’ve seen in Gaza so far.
UPDATE (20/04/2024): Former CIA analyst, Larry C. Johnson, published a post with his analysis of the latest developments in the Middle East. It is an interesting read, which confirms my interpretation of the events yesterday (Friday 19th April).