War with Iran a 'grave error': UnHerd
4 Min Read
Aaron Bastani writes in Unherd that Western calls for war with Iran will have disastrous-and mostly unintended consequences.
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In this picture released by the official website of the Iranian Army on Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023, Talaeieh missile system is displayed in an unveiling ceremony at a naval base near the Indian Ocean in the southern Iranian port of Konarak, some 850 miles (1,400 kilometres) southeast of the capital, Tehran, Iran (Iranian Army via AP)
According to an analysis by Aaron Bastani in UnHerd, recent calls by Israeli and US officials to overthrow the Iranian regime may not be the simple solution to eradicating resistance factions in the Middle East.
Last week, Naftali Bennett, the Israeli occupation regime's former prime minister posted on X claiming that Iran was a "terror octopus" and calling for the US to target Tehran. John Bolton also made similar comments when he claimed that the solution to increasing security in the Middle East would be to "overthrow the mullahs."
Bastani believes that Iran, although it is true that Iran operates through what he described as "regional proxies," meaning resistance axis parties, recent escalations in Lebanon and Iraq, and YAF attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, are directly related to the aggression on Gaza, with many of the Arab world especially resistance groups declaring that such attacks would not end unless Palestine sees a ceasefire.
Although much of the Arab world shares these feelings, what Iran brings to the table is "military intelligence and hardware capabilities" like drones and precision missiles.
The author admits that though Iran is "a thorn in the side of both the US and 'Israel" the rewards of such a confrontation look questionable.
War, like so many other things, is subject to the law of unintended consequences. Even after the debacles of the previous two decades in Afghanistan and Iraq that is something that far too few Western decision-makers seem to understand, he says.
Read more: Iran's deployment of warship 'boldest move yet' in the face of US
In addition, he argues that there is no evidence to suggest that toppling the current government of Iran would lead to a more Western-friendly alternative.
The consequences of a failed war with Iran, a country three times the size of Iraq, are difficult to overstate, the author stresses.
He points out that Iran can feed itself, an abundance of fossil fuels (the sale of which, like Russia, has lessened the effects of US sanctions), a formidable military-industrial complex, and produces more steel than any other EU nation save Germany.
Senior US official to visit 'Israel' hoping to prevent war: Reports
The United States wants to prevent an escalation that might evolve into a regional war by sending a senior diplomat to occupied Palestine to prevent the Israeli occupation from committing a blunder, Israeli media reported.
The Israeli KAN public broadcaster said there were talks about US President Joe Biden's special envoy on Israeli-Lebanese issues, Amos Hochstein going on a trip to occupied Palestine.
Hochstein mediated talks that culminated in a maritime demarcation agreement that put to bed some stark tensions previously, and he is currently reportedly trying to prevent an escalation that might lead to an all-out war on Lebanon.
The US diplomat is also pushing forward with an agreement on land demarcation, which the Israeli outlet said "Tel Aviv" did not oppose and had previously discussed its stipulations.
Hochstein is slated to visit occupied Palestine on Thursday to meet with several senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others.
The US diplomat will present what he heard from Lebanese authorities to the Israeli regime and then will receive the Israeli standpoint, which is that they do not oppose the agreement, the outlet said.
According to KAN, the Israelis want their settlers back in the north again. However, they will not send them back there without an agreement because that would lead to a war.
