Russia makes urgent appeal to the Security Council after the US attack on Iraq and Syria

With 85 objectives achieved and nearly 40 dead in both countries, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Iraqi Government, the US president's promise was fulfilled in less than eight days after he made it.

“We will respond”, said the US president at a campaign event in South Carolina, in which he asked for a minute of silence for the soldiers killed in an attack on Jordan's border with Syria, on January 28.

“I hold Iran responsible in the sense that it is supplying weapons to the people who did it,” Biden said, explaining one of his government's arguments for carrying out the offensive.

The attack against US forces in Jordan was claimed by the amalgamation of pro-Iranian militias Islamic Resistance in Iraq, some of which are also part of the Popular Multitude, a coalition formed by pro-Iranian Shiite militias, backed by Tehran and integrated into the Iraqi state.

For Russia, the attack only inflames the delicate situation in the Middle East and shows the need for an “urgent analysis” of the Security Council, while letting the entire world see “the aggressive nature of US policy and the total Washington’s contempt for international law.”

“It is clear that the airstrikes are designed specifically to further fuel the conflict. By recently attacking, with virtually no respite, facilities of allegedly pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, “The US is deliberately trying to plunge the largest countries in the region into conflict.”Zakharova stressed.

For the Russian diplomat, this fact, isolated from US territory, far from its population and even from its close allies in NATO and the European Union, “must be condemned” by international organizations. Far from being a one-shot, however, Washington has said this is “just the beginning.”

The head of the White House has explained that the war response “will continue at the times and places we choose,” and the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said that the president “has ordered additional actions” to hold the Revolutionary Guard and the affiliated militias.

A plan that is even continuing, despite the fact that a prominent pro-Iran group in Iraq, Kataeb Hezbollah, assured last Tuesday, January 30, that it was going to stop attacks on US troops.

And for the United States, this scenario could be the perfect time to counterattack after the various blows that have been dealt against it from the East.

Since October 7, when the Islamist group attacked Israel, US forces have been attacked more than 150 times in actions that – according to official data from the Biden Government – have been supported by Iran in Iraqi and Syrian territory. In these attacks there have been at least 70 victims, most of them due to traumatic injuries.

Its warships have also been targeted by Houthi forces, which support Iran in Yemen. This is a response by the Houthis to the bombings received after the group puts pressure on ships in the Red Sea against Israel's position in the Gaza war and which affects the flow of commerce in the area.

The shock waves of the attack

Announcing the death toll: 23 in Syria and 16 Iranians – according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in the United Kingdom – both countries responded to Washington and gave their perspective on how this situation can further inflame the already revolted conflict in the region.

“This flagrant aggression has caused 16 deaths, including civilians, in addition to 25 injuries, and has caused loss and damage to residential buildings and citizens' property,” said the spokesman for the Iraqi Executive, Bassam al Awadi, adding that he will call the person in charge of business at the US embassy in Baghdad to deliver an “official protest.”

Three US soldiers killed and 30 injured after attack on military base in Jordan

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On the Syrian side, the Foreign Minister warned that the actions of the United States will only “fuel the conflict in the Middle East, in a very dangerous way,” and commented that Biden's arguments to defend his offensive are “pretexts and lies to justify the attack.” ”.

Iran, which was not affected by the physical attacks but was affected by the verbal statements of US officials, warned that the bombings are a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and Syria, and will serve to escalate the conflict in the region.

In a statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kananí said:

Last night's attacks against Syria and Iraq are another strategic mistake by the US Governmentwhich will have no other result than the escalation of tension and instability in the region

The impact of the attack

Al Mayadin, the considered Iranian capital in Syria, was where the US airstrikes were concentrated. Others were distributed in Deir al Zur and the Al Bukamal district, which borders Iraq, and which also represents an important supply route for some pro-Iranian militias close to the Government of Bashar al-Assad.

According to the same British Observatory in this country, at least 27 “important” targets were destroyed in the attack, which in total covered about 130 kilometers.

Iraq The bombings represented the destruction of structures of the pro-government militia group Popular Multitude, de facto integrated into the Iraqi Armed Forces, in the areas of Al Qaim and Akashat, close to the border with Syria.

With EFE and AP.