Iran-Israel conflict

STRIKING a defiant note, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his country will decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s April 13 airstrikes. Netanyahu has rejected calls for restraint from close allies, even as the US and 47 other countries have issued a statement unequivocally condemning the attacks on Israel by Iran ‘and its militant partners’. Meanwhile, an intransigent Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has warned Israel against retaliation, while suggesting that Iran is capable of carrying out much bigger strikes than those witnessed over the weekend.

This aggressive posturing by both sides is worrisome not only for West Asia, which is already in the throes of the six-month-old Israel-Hamas war, but also for the world at large. The United Nations has urged Israel and Iran to exercise ‘maximum restraint’, but the two nations seem to be in no mood to tone down their rhetoric. The US and its allies have a crucial role to play in reducing hostilities. The West has been ambiguous about the Israeli strike that killed two Iranian Generals in a consulate building in Damascus, Syria, on April 1. Such provocative attacks should be denounced categorically, irrespective of whether the perpetrator is a friend or a foe.

With Israel becoming increasingly isolated in the international arena due to its relentless bombardment of Gaza, it can ill afford to confront Iran militarily. The fact that there were no fatalities in the attacks carried out by the Iranians should make Israel see reason. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has rightly hoped that Israel will act against Iran ‘in a way that is smart as well as tough and also does as little as possible to escalate this conflict’. There is a need for both sides to tread warily so as to avoid creating a new war zone.