Monday 8 January 2024

Is Israel trying to provoke Hezbollah into a war?

An Israeli drone has killed a senior Hezbollah leader in Lebanon. Was this a deliberate attempt to provoke Hezbollah, and Iran, into a war? The poor Americans. They are desperately trying to calm things down in the Middle East and bring the war in Gaza to an end, for the sake of the Palestinian people. Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, who has been back and forth between Israel and Washington so many times he must be sick of spwlling out the same argument for Israeli restraint only to be told the war has to go on until every Hamas fighter is dead. And now when he is on his latest tour of the region, Israel targets this Hezbollah leader in southern Lebanon. I can just hear Blinken turning to his travelling officials and saying: "Dammit, I'm trying to stop the war spreading and Netanyahu kicks me in the ...." I still don't think Iran wants to take on Israel and certainly not the United States, but a drone attack like this one today is bound to be seen in Tehran as a deliberate throwing-down of the gauntlet. I suspect Iran will respond in some way and Blinken will return to Washington after another frustratingly brick-wall diplomatic mission.

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