“Who says we aren’t attacking Iran? We are attacking Iran…”

Tel Aviv/Islamabad/Tehran/Washington:  It was expected but now it is certain – the focus of the Middle East conflict has shifted to Iran. Two days after Tehran fired missiles on Israeli spy agency “Mossad’s” centre in Kurdistan, and other terror bases in Syria and Pakistan on January 16, 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded today with an ominous statement. According to The Times of Israel, he told a reporter who asked why Israel was sufficing with attacks on Iran’s proxies rather than attacking Iran directly, “Who says we aren’t attacking Iran? We are attacking Iran.”

Today Pakistan already undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in the Sistan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran. Islamabad claimed many terrorists were killed during the Intelligence-based operation – codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar‘.

The Pakistani action followed a missile attack by Iran on what the latter claimed to be a terror camp of Jaish ul-Adl, in Balochistan on January 16, 2024. Pakistan today claimed its action was a manifestation of its “unflinching resolve” to protect and defend its national security against all threats.

“Over the last several years, in our engagements with Iran, Pakistan has consistently shared its serious concerns about the safe havens and sanctuaries enjoyed by Pakistani origin terrorists calling themselves Sarmachars on the ungoverned spaces inside Iran. Pakistan also shared multiple dossiers with concrete evidence of the presence and activities of these terrorists. However, because of a lack of action on our serious concerns, these so-called Sarmachars continued to spill the blood of innocent Pakistanis with impunity. This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities by these so-called Sarmachars,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry claimed today.

As expected, Iran slammed Pakistan’s attack and summoned the Pakistani charge d’affaires in Tehran to officially announce Iran’s protest and demand an explanation from the Pakistani government on the matter.

Last week, the United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken made a statement that he did not see conflict escalating in the Middle East due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

How wrong he has been proved within a week! While the war in Gaza is already more than 100 days old resulting in over a lakh Palestinians dead, missing, or injured and with no immediate end in sight, there has been a dramatic escalation in the conflict that now extends up to South Asia. It now threatens to tip into a full-blown conflagration.

There have been several strikes from the Iran-backed Yemen-based Houthis in the Red Sea and Hizbollah in the north of Israel. Iran too has directly jumped into the ring by launching missiles at different countries – Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria. Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian today also linked the security of the Red Sea to the Gaza events and said everyone will suffer if it doesn’t stop. The US responded by stating, “So the message to Iran is the same as it was to the Houthis, which is attacking unarmed civilian vessels that are just sailing through international waters has nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza, and we will do what we need to deter those attacks”.

Terror has become the buzzword to justify deadly cross-border strikes today. And the definition of terrorism has also changed. After all, as they say, one shoe will not fit every foot! What sounds ominous is that going by the classification of terrorists by these countries, it appears that today the entire Middle East is infested with terrorists of different brands!

Israel calls Hamas terrorists and vows to erase them from the planet after the deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. Both Israel and the USA brand Houthis as terrorists. Iran calls Israel’s “sinister Zionist regime” the “most detested terrorist organization” in the world, and slams the USA’s “unrestricted support” for Israel.

After the US redesignated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group yesterday, Iran today defended the Houthis and said the US government was not “morally qualified” and lacked the legal authority to judge others. Tehran went on to demand that the US should be “held accountable in front of the world as a supporter of the terrorist Zionist regime’s war crimes”. It further warned, “If the US is sincere in expressing its concern about stability and security in the region, it should stop supporting the Zionist regime in its war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated, “By calling the Ansarullah movement [Houthis] a terrorist group, the US once again showed that it is not willing to correct its wrong and destructive policies in the region and is still part of the problems and instability in the region.”

Incidentally, the US still feels that it’s not in anyone’s interest, including Iran’s, to see this conflict escalate. “We think Iran should send a very clear, deliberate message to all of its proxies to stand down, to stop fomenting instability across the region,” the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in Washington.

While the US and Israel have of late agreed on a plan for a United Nations assessment team to go into northern Gaza, Miller said several preliminary steps have to take place before the UN assessment mission can be launched.  “But it is a high priority for us that the UN assessment mission be launched as soon as possible and that it be completed,” he said.

– global bihari bureau