Middle East placed by United States on powder keg
By Syed Ali Hassan
Iran Daily’s correspondent
in Pakistan
Russia has stated that the increase in violence in the Middle East indicates that all the policies made regarding the Middle East under US President Joe Biden have completely failed. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Iran›s retaliatory missile attacks against Israel on Tuesday evening clearly demonstrate that US policies have placed the Middle East on the brink of explosion.
Russia›s role in the Middle East is based on the Axis of Resistance, and Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad played a key role in engaging Russia in the region. When Russia decided in November 2018 to fight US-backed terrorism in Syria, Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman also tried to balance its relations with both the US and, to some extent, Russia and China. As a result, both of these countries have increased their stakes in the Middle East more than in the past five decades.
China played a significant role in restoring relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, helping to end their rivalry and agreeing to act as a guarantor to maintain normal relations between the two countries. Saudi Arabia is interested in purchasing weapons from Russia and cooperating in the nuclear sector. It is noteworthy that Iran, as a goodwill gesture, has also offered nuclear cooperation to Riyadh.
On Tuesday evening, Iran’s missile attacks altered the political and military landscape of the region. Israel claimed that Tehran fired 181 ballistic missiles at dozens of targets inside the occupied territories, while another official source confirmed the rumble of nearly 400 Iranian missiles across Israel. However, the Israeli military claimed that some of the missiles were destroyed by Israel›s air defense system before they hit the ground. Iranian officials said the ballistic missiles had caused significant damage to Israel’s military infrastructure. They described the strikes on all Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, from Tuesday evening to early Wednesday morning as retaliation for the assassination of Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week.
Israel has hinted that it is set to respond to Iran›s missile attacks, but Iran has issued a warning to the occupying regime, stating that if Israel makes any further mistakes, the next attack will be even more severe, and Israel will be unable to stand on its feet. A clear message has been sent to Israel: if it even attempts to attack Iran›s nuclear facilities, Iran will preemptively wipe out Israel’s nuclear facilities. It should be noted that Israel has not yet conducted a nuclear test, but it has propagated the notion of being a nuclear power to impose its dominance on the Arabs.
Western countries, particularly the US media, continue to claim that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, with estimates ranging from 80 to 400 warheads. However, no definitive evidence has been presented. It has also been speculated that former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir considered using nuclear weapons during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, but no confirmed evidence exists. Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Western intelligence agencies have suggested that Israel acquired nuclear capability in the 1960s. The discrepancies in the data about Israel›s nuclear weapons cast doubt on its truth.