As if there weren't enough already
'Something to be concerned about' |
| | An attack in Damascus that Iran says killed two senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders among others — and that it blames on Israel — will revive a concern that has haunted Washington ever since the start of the war in Gaza. US President Joe Biden has worked frantically since October to stop Israel's war on Gaza from widening from an already horrific conflict in the Hamas-run enclave into a broader conflagration. The effort has only been partially successful — as seen with US strikes in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in response to attacks by Iranian-backed militia groups on US forces and international shipping. The dramatic developments in Syria on Monday immediately deepened the political risks for Biden and come at a time when both he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are increasingly at odds over the Gaza conflict. Biden is facing fierce pressure from progressive Democrats outraged by the tens of thousands of deaths in Israeli attacks seeking to destroy Hamas. And Netanyahu's government was just rocked by the largest demonstrations since the war began. His governing coalition is under pressure on all sides. It is no exaggeration to say that this fraught moment in the Middle East threatens the hold on power of both the American president and Israeli prime minister — who have known one another for decades and whose political goals often now appear to be in direct conflict. The possibility of any new front in the war could bring the US and Israel closer by necessity given their unshakable alliance. But a wider regional escalation and any direct clashes between Israel and Iran would be deeply unwelcome in Washington. "That is something to be concerned about from a US perspective," former US under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday. "The administration has been trying since October 7 to keep this conflict from escalating beyond Hamas-Israel and beyond Gaza and particularly has been trying to ensure it does not spread much beyond the low-grade conflict in the north of Israel between Hezbollah and Israeli forces." Long-held fears that tensions could boil over between Israel and Iran have not been realized. And lower-level clashes between Israel Defense Forces and Iranian proxies like Lebanon-based Hezbollah have stayed below a threshold that would trigger more worrying hostilities that could draw the US further into the war. The risk now, however, is that Iran could feel compelled to respond more robustly because of the visibility and symbolism of an attack on what it says was a consulate building in the Syrian capital. |
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Israel's military withdrew from Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, after a 14-day siege that witnesses and Palestinian officials say has left bodies strewn across the complex. Scientists in South Korea have announced that an "artificial sun" has set the world record for sustaining 100 million degrees, in a groundbreaking step for nuclear fusion.
And Argentina and Colombia are trying to mend ties after far-right Argentine leader Javier Milei called his left-wing Colombian counterpart a "terrorist murderer." Meanwhile in America, about half a million fast food workers in California are now making at least $20 per hour -- $4 higher than the overall state minimum wage. A Texas woman is suing the prosecutors who charged her with murder after her self-induced abortion. And shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group plunged Monday, after the company disclosed that it lost more than $58 million and generated little revenue in 2023. |
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'No comment doesn't cut it' |
Developments in Damascus will only exacerbate the fury among progressive Democrats toward Israel. Rep Ro Khanna, for example, demanded to know on Monday whether it was indeed behind an attack that he warned could embroil the US in yet another foreign quagmire. "We need to know and get the facts but we need a clear answer from the Israeli government. Were they responsible or not? I'm not going to speculate, but no comment doesn't cut it," the California Democrat told CNN. "The American people do not want a war with Iran. We do not want Israel to escalate a war with Lebanon. We do not want them to go into Rafah and kill civilians. "This could be a regional war, and I'll tell you one thing ... Republicans, Democrats, independents, no one wants America entangled in another war in the Middle East." |
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The attack in Damascus appears to represent the most flagrant challenge to the IRGC since the US killing of the organization's top leader, Qasem Soleimani, in a US drone strike in Baghdad ordered by then-President Donald Trump in January 2020. Technically, Iran's consulate is sovereign Iranian territory, making this the most overt attack on Iranian soil in years, CNN's Tamara Qiblawi reports from London. And Mohammed Reza Zahedi is the most high-profile target since Soleimani. This may condition Iran's response. "Events in Damascus today indicate that Israelis have (Iranian Supreme Leader) Ali Khamenei in a box," wrote Mohammad Ali Shabani, Iran analyst and editor at the online magazine Amwaj.media, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Iran's supreme leader is being embarrassed before his own praetorian guard, and Quds Force will have increasingly hard time justifying Khamenei's indecisiveness before Iran's regional allies." It is difficult to envisage an Iranian response that does not involve its most powerful paramilitary ally, Hezbollah. The Lebanese Shia militant group has been embroiled in daily cross-fire with Israeli forces since October 8. For nearly six months, it has walked a fine line between trying to limit its field of militant operations to the border area, while trying to enforce tit-for-tat rules of engagement. This has become increasingly difficult as Israel strikes targets much further afield than the border area with growing frequency (Israeli airstrikes hit a major city in eastern Lebanon last week). |
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