Benjamin Netanyahu had been waiting for this moment for decades: to wage a great war against Iran and put an end to the regime that was established in Tehran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Israeli prime minister had been trying for many years to convince his main ally, the United States, that it was necessary to eliminate the threat that, in his opinion, that regime represents, not only for the Jewish State, but for the entire world. Netanyahu’s wishes have come true thanks to the support of Donald Trump who, after many months of indecision, has embarked on a broad military campaign that is about to complete three weeks. Once embarked on the conflict, Israel marks the step towards the US with a dangerous escalation that has intensified in recent hours.
In the first hours of the beginning of the bombings, most of the American media pointed to Israel’s insistence as one of the key elements in the decision of US President Donald Trump to launch the bombings against Iran. That thesis was reinforced by statements by Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, in the halls of Congress, pointing out that Trump had decided to attack Iran because Israel was preparing to do so. A day later, Rubio was forced to correct statements that portrayed Trump in a subaltern position to that of Israel.
Precisely this argument, that of subalternity to the interests of Benjamin Netanyahu, has been put forward by the recently resigned head of US Counterterrorism, Joe Kent, who this Tuesday stated: “After deep reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot, in good conscience, support the war in Iran. Iran did not represent any imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war because of the pressure from Israel and its powerful lobby in the United States.”
The idea of the influence of lobby Israeli in the US is one of the key elements of the MAGA schism, between those opposed to Israel, such as former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene or former Fox host Tucker Carlson, and the most Islamophobic, such as Laura Loomer.
This Wednesday, precisely, Kent gave his first interview after Carlson left office, in which both affirmed that Israel, and not the Trump Administration, directs US policy in the Middle East.
Kent has also stated that the ultra-commentator murdered at the University of Utah, Charlie Kirk, last September, asked him once they met in the White House to avoid a war with Iran, and the former head of the fight against terrorism in the United States has pointed out about Kirk’s death: “This avenue must be investigated.” [de la oposición de Kirk a la guerra con Irán]was receiving a lot of pressure from pro-Israel donors.”
This same Wednesday, the White House Press Secretary stated about Kent’s resignation: “The President finds it deeply disappointing that, after having been given the opportunity to serve the American people in this Administration, he has decided to resign through a letter full of falsehoods, accusing the President of the United States of being under the control of a foreign country; something that is, simultaneously, both insulting and laughable. The President is the leader of the most powerful country, and the armed forces, in the world. No one will care. “He says what he has to do. The president’s decisions are based on what is in the best interest of this country.”
Since the start of the bombings against Iran on February 28, Israel has set the pace for the United States and the pace of the war escalation, which has been growing up with selective assassinations of key figures of the ayatollah regime and an attack this Wednesday against the Iranian part of the largest gas field in the worldlocated in the Persian Gulf and shared by Iran and Qatar.
Israel earlier this week killed the chairman of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, the most prominent figure in the regime to be killed, after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a bombing at the start of the war, along with several members of his family. Netanyahu himself confirmed on Tuesday the murder of Larijani and the commander of the Basij (a paramilitary body subordinate to the Revolutionary Guard), Gholamreza Soleimani. “In the last 24 hours, we have neutralized two of the terrorist ringleaders, the top leaders of this tyranny,” the prime minister announced in a video.
Before killing Soleimani, the Israeli army had been bombing Basij posts and members on the streets of Iran for days. One of its objectives is to weaken the bodies and forces of the regime to cause a collapse of security and, at the same time, behead the defense and political institutions to generate a power vacuum.
This Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces announced that they have also killed the Iranian Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib, in a “precise attack” in Tehran. Hours after killing the third senior official of the regime in 48 hours, Israel has hit Iran’s economic infrastructure, with a bombardment against gas facilities in the South Pars field.
Israel is not only killing the regime’s leaders, but critical infrastructure for the country’s supply and income.
Haizam Amirah Fernández
— Executive Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CEARC)
Attacks on energy infrastructure
The latest attack – not officially confirmed by Tel Aviv – has provoked the wrath of Qatarwhich operates the northern part of that enormous gas field, and has skyrocketed gas and oil prices in international markets. “Israeli attacks against facilities linked to Iran’s South Pars field, an extension of Qatar’s North Field field, constitute a dangerous and irresponsible measure amid the current military escalation in the region,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari, who has directly accused Israel, said on the X social network.
For its part, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has said after the attack on South Pars that it considers “legitimate targets” several energy facilities in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, countries allied with the United States (in the case of the Emirates, also with Israel) and located a short distance from Iran, on the other side of the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, stated in
Hours later, a missile launched from Iran caused a large fire in the Ras Laffan industrial complex in Qatar, where the country’s largest liquefied natural gas production plant is located. Qatar has denounced the “flagrant violation of its sovereignty” and has denounced that “the Iranian side persists in attacking neighboring countries, adopting an irresponsible approach that undermines regional security and threatens international peace.”
In this context, the US president issued a threat and a warning on Truth Social on Wednesday night: Trump promised that Israel would not carry out any more attacks on the important Iranian gas field in South Pars, while warning that if Iran attacked Qatar again, the US would retaliate and “blow up the entire field.”
After the crossed attacks this Wednesday, the energy escalation can go beyond the transit of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and set fire to one of the most important hydrocarbon production and export regions in the world.
Israel is interested in setting the entire Persian Gulf on fire. Netanyahu doesn’t mind setting fire to the Gulf and the international economy
Haizam Amirah Fernández
— Executive Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CEARC)
“Israel is openly demonstrating that its attack is not against the Iranian regime but against the Iranian state and nation. It is not only killing the leaders of the regime, but also critical infrastructure for the country’s supply and income,” says Haizam Amirah Fernández, executive director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CEARC).
In an interview with elDiario.es, he recalls that Iran had previously warned that it would retaliate if its energy infrastructures were attacked, therefore, “Israel is openly wanting to drag the Arab monarchies of the Gulf into its war.”
“Israel is interested in setting the entire Gulf on fire and, if energy infrastructure is destroyed [en la zona]you will not suffer the consequences. “Netanyahu does not care about setting the Gulf and the international economy on fire,” says the expert, adding that the US has not prevented this attack by Israel or others, despite its repercussions in the region and international energy markets.
“The Arab countries of the Gulf are aware that they are in a very low position in the priorities of the United States, it has taken them to a very dangerous terrain in which these countries did not want to be. The United States has brought the war to their homes, the war is no longer in the neighborhood,” explains Amirah Fernández.
The US does not stop Netanyahu’s feet
An official Israeli source has told the American media Axios that the attack against the gas field was “coordinated between the office of the Prime Minister of Israel and the White House” and that its purpose was to warn Iran that, if it continues to hinder oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, there may be an escalation against its energy infrastructure, which would aggravate the economic crisis in Iran and the delicate situation of the regime.
Netanyahu himself has said in public that he speaks with Trump almost daily since the beginning of the war and White House sources have confirmed to The New York Times these “frequent conversations”, which suggests that both agree on the attacks carried out by their aircraft, with the Israelis being much more numerous.
Last weekend, the US attacked the island of Kharg, through which 90% of the Islamic Republic’s crude oil exports pass, and assured that it had “completely eliminated all military objectives on the island.” But President Trump said that, “for reasons of decency,” he had decided “NOT to destroy the island’s oil infrastructure.” Israel has not had as many qualms or shown concern about the impact of its offensive on global energy markets.
Axios assures that the US and Israeli military and intelligence services “act in a coordinated manner” in Iran, although their objectives are not always the same. The US has focused almost exclusively on military targets, while Israel has also carried out high-level assassinations and “other measures aimed at laying the groundwork for regime change.” Attacking the energy infrastructure on which the Iranian economy depends is part of those measures that can lead, in the medium term, to the collapse of the regime.
Source: www.eldiario.es
