Iran fulfilled its repeated threats to Israel and on Saturday night launched a wave of missiles and cruise missiles against Jewish territory, attacked for the first time in history from Tehran. The Government of Benjamin Netanyahu reassured the population by assuring that the defense systems were already activated and that all projectiles coming from the ayatollah regime will be neutralized as soon as they enter the Jewish sky, something that is not expected until dawn due to the distance – between the two capitals there are 1,625 kilometers – that separates both countries. In fact, from Tel Aviv it was confirmed that several of them have already been shot down over Syria and Jordan.
Precisely these two countries closed their airspace as soon as they heard about the wave of unmanned aircraft with which the Islamic Republic materialized its promise of revenge for the bombing of its embassy in Damascus, where more than a dozen died on April 1. of people. Syria also put its Russian-made Pantsir surface-to-air defense systems on high alert around the capital Damascus and its main bases in case of an Israeli attack. They said they expected Israel to retaliate against army bases and installations where pro-Iran militias were based.
The bombing was confirmed from the Persian theocracy by the Guardians of the Revolution, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic. “In response to the numerous crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consular section of the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus and the martyrdom of a group of commanders and military advisors of our country in Syria, the air force fired dozens of missiles and drones against specific targets within the occupied territories,” state television indicated, citing the public relations department of the Guardians.
The response on Israeli territory had been considered imminent by North American Intelligence, which led the Pentagon to deploy more troops in the region and its president, Joe Biden, to interrupt his weekend in Delaware, where he has his private home, to return to Washington and “consult with his national security team on events in the Middle East,” the White House explained. “I don't want to talk about classified information, but I have the expectation that it will happen sooner rather than later,” the president acknowledged on Friday, who in recent days has reiterated his “strong” support for Netanyahu in the face of repeated warnings from the republic. Islamic.
Israel also spoke out this Saturday along those lines, assuring its Defense Minister, Yoav Galant, that it is “closely monitoring” – by monitoring the airspace – a “planned” attack by Tehran and its allies. Hezbollah, one of the groups related to the Persian regime, suffered a bombing by the Hebrew army against one of its large complexes in southern Lebanon hours before. Military sources, once the attack was known, said on Saturday night that Iran had opted for a “serious and dangerous escalation” of the Middle East conflict.
Hijacking of a cargo ship
This attack occurred hours after the Persian Revolutionary Guard hijacked a cargo ship linked to a Hebrew company that was sailing about seventy miles from the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian country from the United Arab Emirates. The elite corps of the Iranian army, which lost seven of its members, including several generals, in the action against the consulate in the Syrian capital, was responsible for the operation, which Israel described as an act of piracy. The ship 'MSC Aries', flying the Portuguese flag and twenty-five people of Filipino nationality on board, was intercepted with a helicopter.
Among all the ships that cross this strategic maritime passage for global transportation, and oil and natural gas traffic in particular, the Ayatollah regime focused on this container freighter because of its connection to the Hebrew State. A part of Zodiac Maritime, the London-based company to which the ship is linked, is owned by billionaire Eyal Ofer, who before the pandemic held the title of Israel's richest man. The Italian-Swiss shipping company MSC confirmed what happened and stated that it was “working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the well-being and safe return” of the crew.
The Government of Benjamin Netanyahu did not take long to alert the international community about the incident because the cargo ship – “civilian”, he stressed – belongs “to a member of the European Union.” “Ayatollah Khamenei's regime is a criminal regime that first supports Hamas and is now dedicated to carrying out pirate operations in violation of International Law,” denounced the Jewish Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, aware of the concern in the region and outside its borders due to the escalation of tension between Iran and Israel, which are going through one of their most delicate moments in the almost half century of silent war that both countries maintain. The last time their confrontation seemed to reach a point of no return was just three years ago, in 2021, when Tel Aviv and Tehran accused each other of attacks in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, respectively, against ships they owned.
The confrontation between Israel and Iran that now seems to be about to explode with consequences that are difficult to foresee inside and outside the region has been brewing for decades, almost always in the shadows. It was in 1979, with the Islamic revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to Persian power and ended the empire of the Shahs, when the cordiality between both nations exploded and Tehran also went from being one of Washington's main allies. Middle East to mark it as one of its great enemies. The “great Satan” calls him. Yesterday, the White House reminded him that “the capture of a civilian ship without prior provocation is a flagrant violation of International Law”, in reference to the episode of the Strait of Hormuz, and offered Tel Aviv its “unwavering support” to defend itself from the possible reprisals from the Iranian regime, which has been demanding revenge for two weeks for what happened to its consulate in Syria.
In “total panic”
Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Hebrew army, yesterday portrayed the distressing countdown that the country has been experiencing since then. In a televised intervention he reported that all the armed forces were on maximum “alert” and that dozens of military planes “are already in the sky.”
The population was no stranger to the delicate scenario and among the latest measures approved by Netanyahu's Executive in the face of the Iranian threat that affect civilians were the limitation of capacity at outdoor meetings to a thousand people, the closure of beaches and the suspension of educational activity and school trips scheduled for the next few days, when Pesach (Jewish Passover, starting Monday the 22nd) is also celebrated.
Concern also spread throughout the international community, which this week intensified diplomatic contacts with Tehran to avoid a new conflict, with the closure of embassies in the Persian capital – such as that of the Netherlands – or the recommendation not to visit the region that they issued. Russia and France and which was joined yesterday by Canada and Germany. The advisor to the supreme leader of Iran, Yahya Rahim Safavi, did not hide his satisfaction with the situation: «For a week, the Zionists have been in a state of total panic and on alert. “They and their allies are terrified.”
The Middle East has been a hot spot for years but the war in Gaza, which has caused 33,686 fatalities, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, has further complicated this scenario, where Israel and Iran – which took up the Palestinian cause as one of their flags since the arrival of the ayatollahs – do nothing but distance their positions. But if there is one issue that has raised tension between both nations, it is the nuclear issue.
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