Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh affirmed on Thursday that Iran continued to arm its proxies, including in Iraq, to attack Israel.
Notably, Tehran had earlier vowed to retaliate harshly against Israel for its Oct. 26 attack on Iraq, which, itself, was retaliation for Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel.
“A teeth-breaking response,” was the warning from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which he expressed on Nov. 2.
However, in recent days, Tehran has been silent in regard to that threatened retaliation. The most likely reason is Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president.
Trump, himself, is tough on Iran—as are two of his nominees: National Security Council Advisor, Rep. Mike Waltz, and his future Secretary of State, Sen Marco Rubio.
The danger for Tehran in a large-scale retaliation against Israel is that Trump will allow the Israelis to respond as they like. That would be in sharp contrast with the Biden administration, which has held them back (as it also held back the Ukrainians.)
Indeed, Washington pundits have taken to describing the weakness of the Biden administration in the face of unprovoked aggression as “escalation paralysis.”
Thus, with a new, tougher U.S. president about to take office, Tehran may increasingly push its proxies, including in Iraq, to attack Israel, rather than run the risks in doing so itself.
U.S.: Iran is Arming its Proxies
In Thursday’s press briefing, a journalist cited trustworthy Iraqi sources as saying that Iranian-backed groups were “manufacturing drones and managing their operations against Israel from Sinjar.”
“Do you have any indication that confirms this?,” she asked Singh. Singh had no specific details, but offered a general perspective.
“In terms of IAMG groups [Iran-Aligned Militia Groups] within Iraq,” she said, “we’ve certainly seen them launch . . . . attacks on U.S. forces, but also attacks towards Israel.”
“What I can tell you is that Iran continues to supply these groups with what we’ve seen, whether it be drones, ammunition,” she continued.
“Iran is arming its proxies,” she affirmed. “But in terms of manufacturing facilities, I just don’t have more for you on that.”
Those who recall Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the U.S.-led war that followed in January 1991 will recognize the significance of Sinjar.
Like Iran and its proxies, Saddam sought to justify his aggression by portraying it as an assault on Israel and its supporters. During the 1991 conflict, Iraq launched 39 missiles against Israel—from Sinjar, a high point in northern Iraq and the original home of the Yezidis, who were driven out by ISIS’s vicious assault in 2014.
The area has yet to be reconstructed and they have yet to return. Sinjar is strategic territory, and it is now controlled by pro-Iranian militias, as the journalist’s question in Thursday’s Pentagon briefing suggested.
Iranian Threats: Before and After the U.S. Elections
On Nov, 3, just two days before the U.S. presidential elections, The Wall Street Journal carried a major report, titled, “Iran Tells Region ‘Strong and Complex’ Attack Coming on Israel,”
Iran was flexing its muscles to several Arab countries, telling them it would launch a major attack on Israel.
“Iran is sending a defiant diplomatic message: It is planning a complex response involving even more powerful warheads and other weapons, said Iranian and Arab officials briefed in the plans,” the Journal reported.
Iranian officials had spoken with officials in Egypt, Bahrain, and Oman, the Journal said. Iran would not act before the U.S. elections. According to U.S. intelligence sources, Tehran wanted Kamala Harris to win the elections, and it feared that an attack on Israel before the vote would benefit Trump.
Yet Trump won anyhow, and since then, there have been no threats against Israel from Iran.
Rather, tensions have grown between Israel and Iraq. On Monday, Israel’s Foreign Minister sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council, complaining about the Iraqi militias’ strikes on Israel and threatening retaliation.
“Israel has the inherent right to self-defense,” the letter said, “and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shi’a al-Sudani responded the following day, on Tuesday, as he denounced the Israeli complaint as “a pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and an attempt to “expand the war in the region.”
However, Sudani also directed his security forces to block the militias’ actions, as Iraq’s Shafaq News reported.
Sudani convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Ministerial Council, which then affirmed that “the authority to decide on matters of peace and war exclusively lies with the Iraqi government.”
Responding to journalists’ questions on Tuesday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller called on the Iraqi government to control the militias and stop them from attacking Israel.
Essentially, Sudani had just issued that order.
However, the crucial question remains: Does Iraq’s elected Iraqi government have the ability to control the Iranian-backed militias, which are essentially executing an agenda set in Tehran?
Source » kurdistan24