U.S. condemns rocket attack by Iran on Israel
Days after its controversial decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran deal, the White House is condemning an Iranian rocket attack on Israeli-occupied land, the latest in a heated escalation between the longtime Middle East adversaries.
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pours resources into exporting destabilizing influence throughout the Middle East, even as the Iranian people are victims of a struggling economy,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement referring to a backand-forth of recent strikes.
“These actions are further proof that the Iranian regime’s reckless actions pose a severe threat to regional peace and security. It is time for responsible nations to bring pressure on Iran to change this dangerous behavior,” Sanders said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, in a phone call with President Trump, also condemned the rocket attacks against Israeli citi- zens, and she and Trump called on all nations to recognize the risk Iran’s actions pose to inter- national peace, according to the White House.
On Thursday, Israel hit Iranian military installations in Syria — the Jewish nation’s biggest coordinated assault on Syria since the 1973 Mideast war — in retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights.
The major force that could hold the region back from all-out war is Russia, said Boston College political science professor Ali Banuazizi. A tempering sign from Russia came in a report that it is backing away from plans to sell modern missile systems to Iran.
“I doubt very much this will lead to an all-out war between Iran and Israel,” said Banuazizi, director of BC’s Islamic Civilization and Societies program. “I believe Russia doesn’t want that right now, and they are the key player.”
‘I doubt very much this will lead to an all-out war between Iran and Israel.’ — ALI BANUAZIZI, Boston College political science professor
Escalating tensions in the region were embodied yesterday by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a top Iranian cleric, who threatened two Israeli cities with destruction if the Jewish state “acts foolishly” and attacks again.
“The holy system of the Islamic Republic will step up its missile capabilities day by day so that Israel, this occupying regime, will become sleepless and the nightmare will constantly haunt it that if it does anything foolish, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” he said, according to state television.
The Iranian government is scrambling to stem the losses from Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of its 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and reinstate tough sanctions. Iran is seeking “whatever reciprocal measures it deems expedient” and expects to be compensated for what it sees as a breach of the agreement by the U.S.
It called on the other parties to the agreement — especially Britain, France and Germany — to safeguard the accord, adding that no provisions or timeframes in the 2015 agreement “are negotiable in any manner.”