This past week, Iran fired around 300 missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for their strike against the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, which killed a top Iranian general along with other high-ranking individuals.
The attacks from Iran came from multiple neighboring countries surrounding Israel including Iran, Iraq and Yemen. However, the weaponry was Iranian and was authorized by them. After the attack, during the same night, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon all reopened their airspaces after having closed them before and during the air attacks. The attack was successfully thwarted by a combined western force including the U.S., France and the United Kingdom. Technology and aircraft from all these countries were used in taking down 90 percent of the drones and missiles.
Although the attacks weren’t a success, multiple members of the Iranian government have responded alluding to future attacks if Israel or those associated with Israel respond. “If the Zionist regime [Israel] or its supporters demonstrate reckless behavior, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response,” Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president, said in a statement.
The United States also warned Israel to not seek out any more conflict with the nation of Iran. President Biden, in a public statement, warned Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, that the United States wouldn’t assist in any counterattack done to Iran. The United States has also begun to move more of their naval vessels around the middle east in preparation for a larger conflict to emerge. Alongside them, the United Kingdom also has begun to move more military aircraft to the middle east due to the updated situation. However, it seems that Israel understands the situation and is not looking to seek any military engagement with Iran. Instead, they are seeking that the international community imposes strict sanctions on Iran for their attack.
Moving forward, the United States doesn’t wish to continue any military engagement with the nation of Iran as seen through Biden’s statement. However, it is put into another very tricky situation, as it has to choose how much it wishes to support Israel as many neighboring forces are beginning to get involved themselves within the conflict. It seems for now, that Iran is ok with ending their small skirmish with the west and, mainly due to outside influence, Israel is choosing to not retaliate in any military capacity.
However, while all this goes on, the war in Gaza is still raging on with over 34,000 reported casualties and 85 percent of the population being displaced since Israel began their war against Hamas in October.
