The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, had been planning to visit Israel and Palestine for weeks, but when he landed in Tel Aviv this Monday he seemed to have moved urgently, with an escalation of violence in the area and the still fresh smoke from the bombardments of a military center in the Iranian city of Isfahan and of an Iranian convoy between Iraq and Syria, which some sources attribute to the Mossad. In the 96 hours prior to its arrival, Israel has carried out one of its deadliest raids in the West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2005) in Jenin, with 10 dead; a Palestinian has killed seven people in a settlement near Jerusalem, in the most serious attack against Israelis since 2011; and Palestinian attack attempts, skirmishes and assaults on Palestinians by ultranationalist settlers in the West Bank have spread (144 on Saturday alone, according to the official Palestinian agency Wafa).
In this context, Blinken dedicated his first words to remember that “it is everyone’s responsibility to take steps to reduce tension, instead of fueling it.” Then, after meeting in Jerusalem with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he has elaborated on the idea by urging “all parties to take urgent measures to restore calm and de-escalate [la tensión]”. Over the weekend, the Netanyahu government approved making it easier for thousands of civilians to obtain a weapons permit, sealed off the attacker’s house until it is demolished, and announced that it would “reinforce settlements” in occupied territory and that it would withdraw security. social “to the families of terrorists who support terrorism”. The Palestinian Authority held the Israeli occupation government “fully responsible for the dangerous escalation”, which has added a new fatality on Monday: a Palestinian killed when, according to the Israeli Army, he tried to avoid an inspection at a checkpoint in Hebron.
Blinken has also indicated that the attack on Friday, committed in front of a synagogue, was “more than an attack against people; It was also an attack on the universal act of practicing one’s faith.” And he added: “We condemn all those who celebrate this and any other act of terrorism that takes innocent lives, whoever the victim is or what they believe. Calls for revenge against more innocent victims are not the answer.”
The statements stick to the script that began in Egypt, the first leg of his tour of the Middle East, which he left this afternoon. The US representative also spoke there in a generic way of “reducing tensions” and urged “calm”. Blinken, whose country maintains a close alliance with Israel, He wanted to give Netanyahu one of lime and another of sand. On the one hand, he has stressed that his country’s commitment to Israel’s security is and will be “invulnerable”, has highlighted the consensus around Iran and has focused on the “horrible Palestinian attacks”. But he has also stressed that seeking more Arab countries to recognize Israel “is not a substitute” for moving towards peace with the Palestinians and stressed the need to “preserve and realize” the two-state solution. It is the formula to end the conflict defended by Washington -and the rest of the international community- and rejected by the current Israeli Executive, the most right-wing in the country’s history. Likewise, and in full swing of anti-government protests, he has mentioned the value of a “robust civil society”, the “right of the people to have their voices heard” and the importance of “building consensus on the new proposals”, in apparent allusion to the controversial and divisive judicial reform promoted by Netanyahu. On Tuesday he will meet Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.
attack in isfahan
Blinken has remained silent, on the other hand, about the mysterious bombing the day before of a military center in the Iranian city of Isfahan. The Iranian Ministry of Defense defends that the attack, with three drones, was repelled, that it did not cause fatalities and only left “minor damage” on the roof of the facility.
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Official US sources quoted by the country’s press attribute it to Israel’s foreign secret service. The newspaper The New York Times points out, from “senior officials of the intelligence services familiar with the dialogue between the two countries”, that the reason for the attack was not Tehran’s delivery of drone bombs to Moscow for the war in Ukraine, but his own concerns about security. Israel, the only country in the Middle East with an (unrecognized) nuclear arsenal, is one of the main champions of the heavy hand against Tehran’s atomic program, opposes a reactivation of the nuclear pact and has maintained a covert campaign of assassinations for years. of nuclear scientists, cyber attacks and sabotage.
The operation, the first of its kind since Netanyahu returned to power a month ago, seems to show that he has adopted the policy applied by the previous government and that the then Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, defined as “acting against the head of the octopus.” terrorist, and not only against the tentacles, as was done in the previous two decades. That is, not only to hit Iran’s forces or allies in other countries, such as Syria or Lebanon, but also directly in the country.
“It is not hard to say who has the ability to know what is kept in the most secret military facility in the heart of a major Iranian city and who has the ability to attack it with large quadcopters,” said Ronen Bergman, a commentator on political and military affairs. in this Monday’s edition of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. The quadcopters are considered the house brand, after being used in 2021 in a sabotage in Iran to paralyze the production of uranium enrichment centrifuges and in 2019 in a Beirut stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
This Monday, Iran has summoned the charge d’affaires of Ukraine for a sarcastic tweet from Mikhailo Podoliak, the main adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenksi, after the attack: “Explosive night in Iran […]. We warned you.” Tehran supports Moscow in the war.
Israel is also blamed for frequent bombardments in Syria by Iranian forces or their allies, such as Hezbollah, who are fighting on the side of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday two airstrikes near the border with Iraq, one of them, on Sunday night, against a convoy. In total, they caused 10 deaths, including a commander of a pro-Iranian militia, according to the Observatory.
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