“Israel is trying to trap Hezbollah in an attack that would trigger an all-out war and allow it to confront Iran, which Israel views as a real strategic threat,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and Brookings’ director of international affairs. At the same time, Tehran is at a crossroads.
Tel Aviv’s war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a difficult time for Iran and its new president, as pressure mounts to strike back at Israel to protect an important ally.
For Iran, “Hezbollah is the biggest blocker – Its capabilities and its proximity to Israel The Islamic Republic’s first line of defense and if destroyed, Iranians will suffer greatly.” Maloney tells the New York Times
“We are pulled where we don’t want to go”
In New York this week, Iranian President Massoud Bezheshkian was clear. Israel is trying to embroil his country in a wider war, he said. “It is Israel that is trying to instigate this whole conflict,” he said. “We’re being pulled where we don’t want to go.”
Tehran It has so far denied being drawn into a wider regional war Its supreme leader Ali Khamenei clearly does not want to, analysts say.
Attempts to remove some barriers
On the contrary, Pezeskian hopes to present a more moderate face to the world at the United Nations and is meeting with European diplomats in hopes of resuming talks on its nuclear program, Major obstacles to its resilient economy lead to relief measures.
Iran wants to maintain its deterrence against Israel. While avoiding a full-scale war between the two countriesThat would embarrass the United States and hurt the Islamic Republic at home.
Fears of ground intervention intensify: Israel sends troops to Lebanese border
Front line defense against Israel
It wants to protect its proxies who provide what it calls front-line defense against Israel — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen — without going to war on their behalf.
And he wants to try to remove some of the financial barriers against her, while maintaining close military and trade ties with Washington’s main rivals Russia and China.
“The fundamentals for Iran have not changed,” said Ali Vaz, director of the Iran Program at the International Crisis Group.
“Iran does not want to be involved in a major war in the region by any means.” He said. He added that this was one of the reasons why he had not yet avenged the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran while he was attending Pessagyan’s inauguration.
Who are the trustees?
Since the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iran has sought to expand its influence across the region and has vowed to destroy Israel. It has built a network of dealers that it finances, equips and supports but does not fully control – Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shia Muslims in Iraq, the Alawites in Syria, and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon..
A Hamas attack on Israel nearly a year ago brought his role to the fore. Israel seized the opportunity to eliminate or limit the activities of proxies in two countries, Hamas and Hezbollah in the north.
At the same time, he continued his backdoor war against Iran, killing senior officials in April in a missile attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
But die-hards want more…
But there are hard-line elements within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, who “would like to see a conflict with Israel as inevitable and as soon as possible,” said Ellie Geranmaye, an Iran expert at the European Foreign Office. Council Relations.
Iran must somehow support its axis of opposition. says Cornelius Adebahr, who studies Iran for Carnegie Europe.
“It cannot swallow Israel’s challenges forever” He insisted.
“If you can’t protect your surrogates, what kind of power are you?” Many are asking.”
Edited by: Katerina Adzi
