Summary: After Iran attacked Golan Heights, Israel claimed it destroyed Iran’s military capabilities in Syria.
Just days after Donald Trump announced the US was backing out of the Iran nuclear deal, Israel and Iran engaged in conduct that has some saying they are on the brink of war.
According to the BBC, “These are the first skirmishes in a potential war between Israel and Iran that promises a fearful level of destruction – even by the standards of the modern Middle East. It could spread across Syria and Lebanon. Israeli cities would be hit, as might strategic targets in Iran. In its initial stages, it would be Israeli air power against the long-range missile forces of Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah,” the BBC continued.
There has been tension between the two Middle Eastern countries for quite some time, and at this point, Israel has appeared to hit a breaking point because of its perception that Iran has too much influence in the region.
On Thursday, Israeli forces bombed Iranian military areas in Syria, and Israel said that this was retaliation for a recent Iranian rocket attack in Golan Heights, an annexed part of Israel that has not been internationally recognized.
“If we get rain, they’ll get a flood,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, according to the Associated Press.
The scope of the Iranian attacks against Israel were so great that a full-fledged war between the enemies is inevitable. However, both sides said that they want their conflicts to be contained.
“The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Iran’s military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory,” The Associated Press wrote.
The White House condemned Iran’s attack and praised Israel for defending itself. Russia, who is friendly with both countries, urged them to not further provoke each other.
“The Iranian regime’s deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
The Guardian said that Trump’s announcement that the US was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal erupted hostilities in the Middle East, and CNBC said that Iran’s economy could spiral because of the US withdrawal from the deal, which would reimpose previous sanctions.
“Renewed sanctions on Iran could, once again, send its economy into a downward spiral. Over the past several weeks, Iran’s rial has lost 25 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar, while inflation is hovering at around 8 percent. Iranians are also struggling with a severe credit crisis that has seen several banks go bankrupt. Unemployment is above 11 percent and citizens have taken to the streets to protest mismanagement and government corruption,” CNBC said. “The country’s GDP has also suffered, going from 6.6 percent in 2010 to negative 1.5 percent in 2015, when sanctions were in full force, but it’s rebounded since. The IMF was predicting GDP growth of 4.3 percent this year, but that could fall sharply after sanctions are re-imposed.”