Apr 4, 2024
On Monday, Israeli warplanes struck an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria which included the embassy and was below the home of the Iranian ambassador and his family. While the ambassador and family were not present at the time, several Iranian military officials were killed.
The unexpected Israeli attack on the Iranian diplomatic building in Syria was part of a message being sent to the United States that Israel will enlarge the conflict if the US does not come to its “rescue,” veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Wednesday.
“The Israelis are sending a very strong message to various actors. The first one is the United States that is slow in delivering weapons,” Magnier began. “The Israelis are also sending another message to the Americans saying, ‘Well if you don’t come to our rescue and you don’t stand by us, we are going to enlarge the war and drag Iran,’” into the fight.
Bringing Iran, which Magnier pointed out has been demonized since 1979, into the war will force the US to join because of its long-standing policy that “Israel is part of American national security.”
The attack also sent a message to the world that everything is on the table for Israel. “If Iran does not respond and the West does not condemn Israel, it means that no embassy in the world can pretend to be safe,” Magnier said, adding that Israel is going to hit any target they see and they “don’t care who’s going to burn on the way.”
Israel wants Iran to respond and bring the US into the war, something Magnier says Iran is aware of, noting that it declined to respond to attacks against its generals who weren’t in diplomatic buildings. “However, this time is different.”
“If Iran does not respond, then the Israelis will go further and will hit even further objectives,” Magnier explained. “But the response will be very thoughtful because Iran needs to be careful not to fall into the hands of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
Magnier noted that Iran will not receive the same support and sympathy that the Palestinians receive from the international community. “The Israelis are killing civilians. The Israelis are killing United Nations workers. They are destroying infrastructure, schools, hospitals, universities, they’re starving the population. This is why people around the world are standing with the Palestinian cause.”
Co-host Melik Abdul noted that there are now protests in the streets of Israel, with some of them demanding a ceasefire to secure the release of the hostages.
“People are in the street camping in front of his house, in front of the Knesset, in front of the government,” Magnier responded, saying that it is “very clear” to the protesters that the hostages are not his priority.
“At the end of the day, he is negotiating with the group that he’s saying he is defeating and he wants to eradicate. He goes to Cairo [Egypt] and doesn’t have any talks with them and without any outcome because he doesn’t want an outcome.”
Asked how Iran will ultimately respond, Magnier said that they have a range of options. “They have long-range precision missiles. They can flood the interception missiles of the Israelis” and hit somewhere in Israel. But they could also hit targets in the Red Sea, or US and Israeli targets in Iraq and Syria.
“Or they can increase the support to the axis of resistance and supply them with more advanced weapons that can damage Israel,” he noted, but added that it is critical that Iran hits Israel directly “because it is important for the Iranians to know that their country has responded to the attack.”
We remind our readers that publication of articles on our site does not mean that we agree with what is written. Our policy is to publish anything which we consider of interest, so as to assist our readers in forming their opinions. Sometimes we even publish articles with which we totally disagree, since we believe it is important for our readers to be informed on as wide a spectrum of views as possible.
