Mideast War Reaching New Levels, as Tehran Lists Potential Israeli Targets and World Powers Get More Involved

As Israelis brace for a new Iranian-coordinated attack, the Mideast wars are growing in prominence and world powers are entering the fray. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on Monday posted a list of potential Israeli targets in what is widely described as an imminent multi-front attack. Those included Ben Gurion airport, Israel train routes, the Haifa seaport, and other infrastructure targets.While it was unclear if and when the IRGC, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian proxies planned to strike, an air of regional war has engulfed the Mideast. On Sunday, Secretary Blinken reportedly told European counterparts to expect an Iranian attack within 48 hours. The world’s superpowers are positioning themselves accordingly. The commander of the U.S. Central Command, General Erik Kurilla, who was expected in Israel on Wednesday, arrived Monday for a meeting at Tel Aviv with the Israel Defense Force chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, and the defense minister, Yoav Galant.President Biden gathered top aides, including Vice President Harris, at the White House situation room as an aircraft carrier, the United States Ship Abraham Lincoln, jet fighters, and other military assets were rushed to the region. In a mirror image, Russia’s defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, arrived at Tehran Monday for meetings with the Iranian national security council chief, Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Russia is reportedly sending to Iran significant new arms deliveries. Communist China, meanwhile, is reportedly selling Iran satellite images that could assist it in locating Israeli targets. “There’s no doubt that there is a superpower angle to this confrontation,” the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Robert Satloff, tells the Sun. In that, he says, America’s strategy “should be more than to help Israel cushion an attack” from Iran and its proxies. “It should be to change Iran’s fundamental calculus.”The region is watching, Mr. Satloff says. Saudi Arabia, for one, is seeking a grand bargain that would include an unprecedented recognition of Israel coupled with a defense treaty with America. Yet, would such a treaty include defenses that “cushion the blow, or deter the blow?” Mr. Satloff asks. Sunni neighbors of Iran are wary of its expansionism. Yet, they increasingly are hedging their bets, trying to mend fences with Tehran for fear that it would emerge as the region’s dominant power.After months in which the IRGC has attempted to undermine the Jordanian monarchy and recruit its Palestinian population against Israel, Amman’s foreign minister, Ayman al Safadi, landed at Tehran Monday. He carried no message from Israel or America, he said. Instead, he came to renew ties with Iran — and to use the occasion to condemn Israel’s “heinous crimes” in Gaza. On April 14, Jordan — along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Arab states — actively participated in a successful Pentagon-coordinated operation that helped Israel intercept hundreds of incoming Iranian missiles and drones. On Monday, Mr. Safadi reportedly warned Iran’s president against using Jordanian airspace for attacking Israel. According to a Qatari report, meanwhile, Egypt informed an Israeli delegation that arrived at Cairo Sunday for talks on a Gaza cease-fire that this time it would sit out a defensive regional coalition. While Egypt’s role on April 14 was minimal, its response may reflect the cautious stance taken by America’s regional allies.Even as the nature of the expected attack is unclear, America is signaling that once again it and its allies would rush to Israel’s defense. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re ready and that we have the capabilities in the region to be able to help Israel defend itself and, frankly, defend our own people,” the national security council’s spokesman, John Kirby, told Fox News Sunday. At the same time, following a conversation between Mr. Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, the White House widely leaked to the Israeli and American press that even as Mr. Biden vowed to defend Israel, he also added a sharp warning: If you escalate further, the president reportedly told Mr. Netanyahu, “You’re on your own.”Last week, Mr. Biden said that Israel’s killing of Hamas’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, at Tehran was unhelpful, and that it undermined peace talks to end the Gaza war. Many in Washington see that the surgical killing — as well as an earlier hit at Beirut that killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr — as a major Israeli war escalation.Israelis and American supporters counter that the unprovoked Iranian-backed Hamas massacre of October 7, and Hezbollah’s daily missile barrages since October 8, are what has tipped the Mideast toward a major regional war. As world players eye the hostilities, passivity in countering Iran and its proxies is damaging America’s global interests.

Mideast War Reaching New Levels, as Tehran Lists Potential Israeli Targets and World Powers Get More Involved

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