“We are at war but with our lights off,” he added. The sum is an undeclared conflict that neither side wants to escalate into frontal combat. And 15 militants linked to Iran were arrested last month in Ethiopia for plotting to attack Israeli, American and Emirati targets. Iran’s Quds force was blamed for a bomb that exploded near Israel’s embassy in New Delhi in January. Israel has also sought to undermine Iran’s nuclear program through assassinations and sabotage on Iranian soil, and both sides are accused of cyberattacks, including a failed Iranian attack on an Israeli municipal water system last April and a retaliatory Israeli strike on a major Iranian port. Those attacks have made those routes riskier and shifted at least some of the weapons transit, and the conflict, to the sea, analysts said. Israel has tried to counter Iran’s power play by launching regular airstrikes on Iranian shipments by land and air of arms and other cargo to Syria and Lebanon. Iran has been arming and financing militias throughout the region, notably in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon, where it supports Hezbollah, a Shiite militia and political movement that is a longtime enemy of Israel. The long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran has accelerated in recent years. “Iran and Israel are bringing their covert war to the open waters.” “You attack us here, we’ll attack you there,” said Gheis Ghoreishi, a political analyst who has advised Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Middle Eastern affairs. The real number of targeted ships may be higher than 20, according to an Iranian Oil Ministry official, an adviser to the ministry and an oil trader. Since 2019, Israeli commandos have attacked at least 10 ships carrying Iranian cargo, according to an American official and a former senior Israeli official. “We’re still in an escalatory spiral that risks getting out of control.”
“This is a full-fledged cold war that risks turning hot with a single mistake,” said Ali Vaez, Iran program director at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization. The Israeli campaign, confirmed by American, Israeli and Iranian officials, has become a linchpin of Israel’s effort to curb Iran’s military influence in the Middle East and stymie Iranian efforts to circumvent American sanctions on its oil industry.īut the conflict’s expansion risks the escalation of what has been a relatively limited tit-for-tat, and it further complicates efforts by the Biden administration to persuade Iran to reintroduce limits on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. No casualties or significant damage were reported. The latest came on Thursday afternoon, when an Israeli-owned container ship, the Lori, was hit by an Iranian missile in the Arabian Sea, an Israeli official said. Iran appears to have quietly responded with its own clandestine attacks.
0 kommentar(er)
