Following the Israeli air force strike that killed General Sayed Razi Mousawi – a Pasdaran commander in Syria – in a suburb of Damascus, the Islamic Republic’s leaders vowed to take revenge “at the appropriate time.” “The murder of the martyr Mousawi is a continuation of violations of international law” by Israel, said yesterday the Pasdaran spokesman, Ramzan Sharif, who promised “a tough response.” It is a well-known and elastic formula to avoid immediate chain reactions but also to have the possibility of denying one’s own responsibility for certain actions, if necessary.
What could be Tehran’s retaliation? The range is wide: missions entrusted to militias, attacks abroad, assassinations of Israeli officials through secret cells (they exist and some have been discovered)…
What is evident is that the conflict unleashed after the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly spreading. Thus, a US base in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, was attacked on Monday by Shiite militias allied to Tehran. Three soldiers were injured, one of them seriously. It can be considered yet another provocation by factions that, independently or instigated by Iran, are pressuring the United States in the area.
Since 7-O, there have been almost a hundred incidents with drones, rockets and ammunition. The Pentagon responded to this attack with a bombing of positions of Kataeb Hezbollah -Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement-, another movement that has always been very close to Iran.
Referring to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq and Syria, the Pasdaran spokesman warned once again yesterday that “it is important that the Americans accept that they have to leave the region.” Following the operations attributed to Israel in Syrian and Lebanese territory, against Iranian targets and allies of Tehran, Sharif also accused the Israeli Government of “wanting to expand the conflict and attack other countries” at a time when it is “under a lot of pressure.” . For Sharif, “the strategy Israel seeks is to turn the conflict with Hamas in Gaza into a war between Iran and the United States.”
For now, the Houthis, pro-Hamas militias that have the backing of Iran, continue their attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea. And they have reiterated that they will continue to attack maritime traffic as long as the Jewish State’s attack on the Strip continues.
On the other hand, Hamas yesterday denied the Iranian Pasdaran’s claim that the 7-O attack in Israel was a response to the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani four years ago in Baghdad. “We have repeatedly pointed out that any response from the Palestinian resistance is a reaction to the occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people and sacred places,” said one of its spokespersons.