The Middle East is on the edge after Israel reportedly retaliated against Iran early Friday morning. According to US media reports, Israel struck Isfahan airport and the Shekari army airbase in the central province of Isfahan. As per the Iranian state media, air defence systems over several cities were activated. Iran’s space agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian said several drones had been successfully intercepted and denied that there was a missile attack.
The nuclear sites in Isfahan were also safe as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Emirates and FlyDubai flights had to change their course at the last moment to avoid Iranian airspace. According to an Iranian news agency, flights to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz as well as airports in the west, northwest and southwest had been suspended.
There were also reports of Israeli attack in Syria’s southwestern provinces of Daraa and As-Suwayda as well as neighbouring Iraq. Following the attack carried out by Iran on Israel after the Jewish state bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, the US and other western countries called on Tel Aviv to show restraint to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control, but the Israeli war cabinet deliberated for three continuous days on how to respond to Iran.
The US and European nations then urged Israel to respond in a way that does not result in escalation. The tit-for-tat attacks have raised tension in the region with fears of an all-out regional war. Now it has to be seen how Iran responds. Under the given situation, Tehran does not want a full-fledge war. Hezollah, its proxy in Lebanon, would take up the fight, with the Houthis stepping up their attacks on the Israeli and Americam ships passing through their waters.
In all of this, the US would also not want the situation to escalate. An all-out war will put its own forces at risk of attacks, which it does not want. In Iraq, the Iranian supported groups would miss no opportunity to attack the American soldiers stationed there. And this would be the last thing Washington would want. It cannot afford a situation like it faced in Afghanistan when its forces left the country in such a hurry that it abandoned their equipment, which the Taliban took over.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza is only complicating the whole scenario. The attacks need to stop to normalise the situation in the Middle East. But this seems out of the question – at least for now.
