{"id":65765,"date":"2021-07-15T13:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T03:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=65765"},"modified":"2021-07-15T12:22:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T02:22:37","slug":"shadowy-war-between-iran-and-israel-at-risk-of-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shadowy-war-between-iran-and-israel-at-risk-of-escalation\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadowy war between Iran and Israel at risk of escalation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Iran and Israel have been at loggerheads since the transformation of Iran into an Islamic republic more than four decades ago and each has persistently viewed the other as a major threat to its national security. Iranian leaders have denounced Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian lands and stood by the Palestinian cause. Their Israeli counterparts have vigorously sought to stunt Iran\u2019s regional influence and nuclear program, while preserving Israel\u2019s status as the only nuclear power in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the two protagonists have engaged in a shadowy war. Iran\u2019s new hardline president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett now insert a new catalyst into the hostile relations.<\/p>\n

Raisi is an ardent follower of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, and holds a common position with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his opposition to Israel. He has reaffirmed his longstanding view of Israel as a cruel occupier of the Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem, the third holiest site of Islam after Mecca and Medina. Under his presidency, there will be no change in Iran\u2019s position that Israel is a dangerous threat.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bennett has proved to be as anti-Iranian as his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu. He has decried Raisi\u2019s election, declaring<\/a> that \u2018A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction.\u2019 Bennett has strongly urged the Biden administration not to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), from which former US President Donald Trump withdrew in May 2018 while imposing debilitating sanctions on Iran as a regional menace.<\/p>\n

Bennett has vowed, like Netanyahu before him, to do whatever\u2019s possible to prevent Iran from acquiring a military nuclear capability, even if it means that Israel has to act on its own. Tehran has repeatedly asserted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n

The current nuclear negotiations in Vienna, involving indirect talks between Iranian and American delegations, have not yet resulted in a tangible outcome. But both Tehran and Washington have said that they\u2019re headed in the right direction. Raisi has given cautious support to the talks, as has Khamenei, although with a firm expression of distrust in the US through Raisi\u2019s ruling out of any meeting with Biden. In the likely event that the negotiations result in the JCPOA\u2019s revival, based on Iran restoring all its commitments to the deal and the US dropping its sanctions, Israeli\u2013Iranian hostility could escalate.<\/p>\n

The two regional foes have conducted clandestine operations against each other for years. Israel has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and those of Iran\u2019s allies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime in Syria, and has reportedly been behind the assassination of Iran\u2019s nuclear scientists and sophisticated cyberattacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. It has also allegedly attacked Iranian vessels, with the latest being the Iranian ship MV\u00a0Savis<\/em>\u00a0in the Red Sea in April. That episode, which occurred on the first day of the Vienna talks, could be seen as signalling Israel\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n

Iran has not only been supporting Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza as formidable foes of Israel, but it has also targeted Israeli or Israeli-related assets, including ships, whenever and wherever possible. Early this year, the Israeli cargo ship MV\u00a0Helios <\/em>was badly damaged in an explosion while passing through the Gulf of Oman, where Iran\u2019s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has combat capability. Israel blamed the IRGC, despite Tehran\u2019s denial.<\/p>\n

The prevailing situation carries the threat of a major Israeli\u2013Iranian confrontation by either intention or miscalculation, which would be disastrous not only for the two protagonists, but also for the region and beyond. Despite the Biden administration\u2019s desire to avoid involving the US in another war in the Middle East, if war were to break out between Israel and Iran, Washington would find it obligatory to support the Jewish state under the US\u2013Israel Strategic Partnership Act. Russia and China can be expected to make a common anti-US cause with Iran as their close strategic friend.<\/p>\n

A resolution of the dispute over the JCPOA would cut both ways. It could restore the agreement to the benefit of not only Iran but also the other signatories\u2014the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China\u2014which regard it as the best means to curb any military nuclear ambitions that Tehran may have. At the same time, it could propel Israel to escalate confrontation with Iran\u2014something that the Biden administration must make sure does not happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran and Israel have been at loggerheads since the transformation of Iran into an Islamic republic more than four decades ago and each has persistently viewed the other as a major threat to its national …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":973,"featured_media":65768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[247,240,1883,2070],"class_list":["post-65765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-jcpoa","tag-us-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShadowy war between Iran and Israel at risk of escalation | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shadowy-war-between-iran-and-israel-at-risk-of-escalation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shadowy war between Iran and Israel at risk of escalation | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iran and Israel have been at loggerheads since the transformation of Iran into an Islamic republic more than four decades ago and each has persistently viewed the other as a major threat to its national ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shadowy-war-between-iran-and-israel-at-risk-of-escalation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-15T03:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-15T02:22:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1229829558.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amin Saikal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amin Saikal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/shadowy-war-between-iran-and-israel-at-risk-of-escalation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1229829558.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1229829558.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"A cutout of an Israeli soldier is seen behind signs pointing out distances to different cities at an army post in Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on November 28, 2020. - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani accused arch-foe Israel of acting as a \\\"mercenary\\\" for the United States and seeking to create chaos, vowing Tehran would avenge the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. 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