Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran is threatening to attack Israel after the country killed members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s de facto military, earlier this week. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is actively pushing for all belligerents in the Israel-Hamas War to agree to a ceasefire.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israel is on high alert following the Iranian “Supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei’s promise that Israel would “be slapped” soon in retaliation for the airstrike. Iran also told the United States to “step aside” as it prepares its counterattack, warning in a letter to the Biden administration that the US should “not get dragged into [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s trap.”
The escalation of the Israeli conflict has intensified over the last week. Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to close down the offices of Al Jazeera, a prominent media outlet in the Islamic world. At the same time, Spain said it would recognize Palestinian statehood come July and called on its allies to follow its lead.
In videos circulated on social media this week, Israeli citizens were seen forming large crowds in protest of the ongoing war and the perceived erosion of their civil liberties, demanding that Netanyahu resign. Netanyahu was suffering from a polarized constituency prior to the Hamas conflict, as he made moves to overhaul the Supreme Court’s challenge against his judicial overhaul. The demonstrators are demanding a ceasefire.
CHAOS in Tel Aviv🇮🇱
Israelis demanding Netanyahu to RESIGN🔥🔥🔥🔥
WWIII is coming? pic.twitter.com/X6lmfvzDi0— Nabeel Shah (@nabeel_AMU) April 4, 2024
As Valuetainment reported four days ago, Israel carried out an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria on April 1st. The attack killed five officers and two generals, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking Iranian military leader yet to be killed in the war. The Iranian ambassador Hossein Akbari, who survived the attack, said Iran’s response would be “decisive.”
Khamenei posted several statements to X regarding the Damascus airstrike. First, on April 2nd, he wished peace on the dead IRGC members, whom he called “martyrs.”
The Zionist regime’s defeat in Gaza will continue. Their desperate efforts, like the terrorist attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria, will fail to save them from defeat. Of course, they will be punished for that action.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 3, 2024
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On April 3rd, he outlined the Iranian state’s view of the events that have elapsed since September. In their view, the “Zionist regime” has experienced two major defeats. The first was October 7th, which saw “a Resistance group with limited resources” defeat “a regime that relies on the accuracy of its intelligence,” causing humiliation. The second was the last six months of the conflict, in which Israel has been unable to reach “compensation” for the first defeat.
In a follow-up post later that day, he said, “The Zionists failed to achieve even a single one of the goals they were pursuing” as Hamas has yet to be destroyed. He added that Israel will be forced to “surrender” to the “equation” that has changed.
He then wrote in Hebrew: “With God’s help we will make the Zionists repent of their crime of aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus.”
Earlier this week, the Biden administration quietly agreed to transfer billions of dollars worth of bombs and dozens of F-35 fighter jets to Israel.
But then yesterday, President Biden released a summary of his phone call with Netanyahu, in which he claims to have called for an “immediate ceasefire” and told the Prime Minister that the strike that killed aid workers and the “overall humanitarian situation” was “unacceptable.” However, he also assured him that America will still support Israel in the face of the Iranian threats. US officials told the media that America is readying itself for Iran’s response, predicting that Iran will avoid an all-out war with the West.
Friday evening, the Associated Press reported that Biden was urging Qatar and Egypt to use their leverage with Hamas to convince its leaders to come to an agreement with Israel for a ceasefire.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.
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