President Trump and his partner in crime Netanyahoo have tried to draw Iran into a ceasefire trap.
It was hoped for that a bit by bit escalation, like Israeli bombing in Lebanon, would be left without a response by Iran.
Iran however did not fall for that scheme. It had been agreed that the ceasefire in the war on Iran includes Lebanon and other fronts between the imperialist and resistance parties. It is either a ceasefire for all or a ceasefire for none.
A week ago, when Netanyahoo threatened to bomb the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut Iran stopped all further peace negotiations and threatened to response in kind.
Trump then allegedly shouted and cursed Netanyahoo for his Beirut bombing plans. But such alleged divergences of views between Washington and Tel Aviv have long be proven to be scams.
Yesterday, on Sunday afternoon local time, Israel dropped at least 10 bombs on Dahiyeh.
Iran’s response followed shortly thereafter. Five waves of missiles were launched against air bases and other targets in northern Israel.
Trump, in an interview (archived) with the Financial Times and FOXnews, asked Israel to stay down. He claimed to “call the shots” on the issue:
‘He won’t have any choice,’ Trump told the FT in a telephone interview. ‘I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.’
A bit later Israel aircraft bombed targets in Iran with stand of missiles. Among the targets were oil installations at the Karun petrochemical complex. Other targets were radar stations.
Iran responded by launching missiles against two additional air bases in central Israel while missiles from Lebanon hit at Israeli oil installations in Haifa.
Ansarullah in Yemen joined in. It announced that all Israel related shipping will be blocked from the Red Sea and fired some of its own missiles against Israel proper.
Both sides of the conflict then concluded the fight. The skirmish is, for now, over.
Trump has several times claimed to restrict Netanyahoo, to hold him back or to order him to stand down. Israel has bombed anyway and, at least in its attacks on Iran, continued to rely on US controlled air defenses and US flight refueling tankers.
Trump’s claims about ordering Israel to do this or that are obviously fake.
The strong cooperation between the US and Israel continues and it is indeed Netanyahoo who is calling the shots while Trump is either agreeing with him or decided to stay silent whenever Israel ignores his ‘order’:
‘The conversation between Netanyahu and Trump was overall good,’ the official added. ‘The two countries see eye to eye, even though twice in the past 24 hours we acted contrary to the president’s public position, both in the strike in Beirut and in the response in Iran.’
The official said Israel had shown it could insist on its right to self-defense even when facing opposition from Washington. ‘Israel proved its ability to stand firm on its right to self-defense even against the president, but without tearing the rope and while preserving the strategic partnership,’ he said. ‘The feeling is that the current escalation is behind us.’
He later qualified the remarks, saying, ‘We are waiting for a final decision, but the direction is to halt the strikes in Iran, not in Lebanon.’
It seems that Israel has yet to learn the lesson. The fronts are connected and attacks in Lebanon will be responded to with attacks on Israel and US interests just as if they were attacks on Iran:
In a statement carried by Fars, Iran’s Emergency Command said the move followed what it described as attacks by Israel in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s Dahieh district, a Hezbollah stronghold, carried out with US support.
‘Following the aggression of the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon and the Dahieh area, with American backing, Iran’s forces delivered a painful response to the regime in support of Lebanon,’ the statement said. ‘A response from which the fake Zionist regime and its supporters should have learned a lesson.’
The statement announced a halt to Iranian military operations but warned that further Israeli actions would prompt a significantly stronger reaction. ‘It is emphasized that if the aggression continues, including in southern Lebanon, much more severe and painful measures will follow,’ the statement said.
With the recent exchange of bombs and missiles Iran has demonstrated that it can not be lulled into a ceasefire trap.
It will keep the US and Israel engaged until they agree to Iran’s peace conditions.
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.
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