Despite the suspension of American attacks against the Islamic Republic, the Pasdaran attacked US forces in Jordan. And meanwhile Netanyahu is urging the American president to carry out new bombings
Tensions are once again rising dangerously in the Middle East. THE pasdaran launched an attack against US forces in Jordan. “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched several ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempt to launch a surprise attack on US forces stationed in the Middle East,” it reported Centcomthen adding: “All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted.” The new offensive came despite, in recent days, Donald Trump had suspended military attacks on the Islamic Republic with the aim of attempting to relaunch diplomacy. A diplomacy that the Pasdaran have always opposed and which they aim to definitively derail. Furthermore, it is no mystery that the Khomeinist regime is internally split between a wing in favor of negotiations and another which, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, is pushing for a hard line towards Washington. If the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkianis inclined towards a diplomatic agreement that would allow American economic pressure on the Khomeini regime to be eased, the Pasdaran see diplomacy as a threat to their power: in fact, they have no intention of accepting substantial limitations on the nuclear front.
What happened therefore strengthens the position of Benjamin Netanyahu who yesterday tried to convince the American president to resume the bombings and to target those Iranian nuclear sites which, according to Israel, risk destabilizing the Middle East. Trump, at least until yesterday, was skeptical about the opportunity to resume hostilities. In this sense, he seemed more inclined to follow the line desired by his deputy, JD Vancewho has always been in favor of the diplomatic path with the Islamic Republic and has always been critical of the interventionist positions of the Jewish State. It was with this in mind that, as already mentioned, the occupant of the White House, last week, had ordered the suspension of air strikes against the Khomeinist regime. However, the sudden Pasdaran offensive against US forces in Jordan could now lead Trump to order retaliation and, who knows, even perhaps to strike the nuclear sites of the Islamic Republic. Moreover, in the last few hours, the United States has already carried out, in coordination with theSaudi Arabiaof military actions against pro-Iranian militiamen stationed in Iraq.
The political dilemma in the White House and the unknown of the Midterms
In short, Netanyahu now sees a concrete opening in which to insert himself, to convince Trump to revive his hard line against the ayatollahs’ regime. A position, his, which, within the US administration, seems (at least in part) shared by the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth. Moreover, the American president also needs to restore deterrence. The problem for him, however, lies in the risk of getting bogged down and in the prospect of a petrol price which, in the United States, could increase more and more, politically damaging the Republican Party ahead of the November midterms. We will therefore have to see what type of solution Trump will try to implement in the next few hours.
