Escalation in the Middle East (II)
EU and several G7 states announce new Iran sanctions, with Germany pushing hard. Yet Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus without consequences. Double standards widely criticised.
BERLIN/TEHRAN/TEL AVIV (own report) - The EU and several G7 states are preparing new sanctions against Iran, partly in response to German pressure. This move follows Iran’s attack on Israel last weekend. The missile and drone bombardment was the first time Iran has directly targeted Israeli territory, although the two states have been engaged in violent clashes for many years. Since 2013, and increasingly since 2017, Israel has been hitting Iranian positions in Syria. Since 7 October 2023 the Israelis have focused on targeted assassinations of Iranian commanders, killing almost a dozen by the end of March alone. The airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus on 1 April killed seven Iranian commanders, some of them high-ranking. It marks “an unprecedented escalation” by Tel Aviv, notes the London-based think-tank Chatham House. It could yet prove to be “the spark that ignites the Middle East”. In response, the West has taken no action against Israel for, not least, violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic sites. Iran’s retaliatory strikes – a choreographed show of strength communicated in advance – immediately triggered Western punishment. The double standards once again on display have given rise to some fierce criticism from the wider international community.
Cyber-attacks, assassinations
Violent clashes between Israel and Iran have been occurring for decades. Israel repeatedly sabotaged Iran’s nuclear programme, with cyber-attacks (Stuxnet) and assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. There was a significant uptick in Israeli attacks on Iranian targets from 2013. That was when Tehran began to use its alliance with Syria’s President Bashar al Assad to supply Lebanese Hezbollah forces with weapons via Syrian routes and to strengthen pro-Iranian militias fighting in Syria itself. The strategy has been to position pro-Iranian forces on Israel’s northern border. Israel has repeatedly countered with airstrikes, which again increased from 2017 as regime change was failing and Assad’s government began to stabilise. An analysis presented by the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) counts 226 publicly documented Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria from 2013 to August 2023.[1] Other experts cite far higher figures.
Targeting commanders
The confrontation escalated to a new level following the Hamas outbreak and massacre on 7 October 2023. There was soon an upsurge in clashes between the Iran-affiliated Hezbollah and Israeli armed forces. And the Yemeni Houthi, who are supported by Tehran, began attacking ships with links to Israel in the Red Sea. Both see their actions as support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and as a way of leveraging the call for an end to the Gaza onslaught. Tel Aviv’s response has been to assassinate commanders and advisors of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Quds Brigade. From the beginning of December to the end of March alone, “nearly a dozen” of them were killed by Israeli strikes, according to a count by the US journal Foreign Affairs.[2] On 25 December, Israel murdered Sayyed Razi Mousavi, probably Iran’s most influential military commander in Syria at the time, in an airstrike.[3] Tehran has effectively been forced to watch as its military leadership in Syria is systematically eliminated by Israeli airstrikes.
“An unprecedented escalation”
The Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus has pushed tensions to a new level. On the one hand, seven Iranian commanders were killed, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a brigadier general in the Quds Brigade responsible for foreign operations, and his deputy. On the other, the attack flattened part of the Iranian consulate, a site that clearly enjoys special diplomatic protection under international law. Military attacks on such facilities are rare and are treated as a particularly serious breach. Chatham House, a London-based think-tank, stated the Israeli airstrike on 12 April represented “an unprecedented escalation by Israel against Iran”. It threatened to “be the spark that ignites the Middle East”.[4] Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, reminded the Security Council that “an attack on a diplomatic mission is a casus belli under international law”.[5] Apart from the legal aspect, Iran would, according to the Chatham House statement, also have to react to this assault for the simple reason that if Iranian commanders are not safe from Israeli bombs even in a diplomatic mission they will not be safe anywhere.
Capable of striking back
Western states have quietly frowned on the Israeli’s airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus but refuse to take any action. By contrast, they reacted to Iran’s response on Saturday night with fierce denunciation and quickly agreed concrete countermeasures. Iran attacked Israel with well over 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. The fact that most of them were intercepted and only minor damage was caused to an Israeli military airfield was due to the fact that Tehran had informed neighbouring Arab states and the US (via Turkey) in advance. This enabled Israel to prepare for the barrage, bringing in not only Western (US, UK and France) but also Arab (Jordan and Saudi Arabia) air defence support to repel the strikes. Turkey insiders and other sources have confirmed a missive to this effect received from the Iranian foreign minister.[6] In this way, Tehran has chosen to avoid serious damage in Israel, which may well have triggered war. On the other hand, the assault sent a message that Iran is capable of major counter-attacks if its red lines continue to be crossed.
New sanctions
The EU has responded by announcing a renewed tightening of sanctions on Iran. On Tuesday evening, after a meeting with EU foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that Brussels was preparing to restrict trade with Iran still further.[7] German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had already spoken out strongly in favour of this step on Monday.[8] Baerbock had also demanded prior to the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Capri that other punitive measures be taken against Tehran. Yesterday, Thursday, the US and UK announced tighter sanctions against an already massively sanctioned Iran.[9] Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, however, remains without consequences.
Double standards
Strong criticisms are being levelled at the double standards evident in this diplomatic behaviour. Thus Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Nebenzya, spoke of a “parade of hypocrisy”.[10] Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also stated that the West was once again applying double standards.[11] And while the Iranian missiles had caused “moral outrage in Western capitals”, there had been no “similar condemnation of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza”, the Pakistani Dawn newspaper wrote on Thursday: “These double standards are appalling.”[12]
[1] Navvar Şaban: Israel’s Response to Iran in Syria: Choosing Between Escalation and Accomodation. mei.edu 17.11.2023.
[2] Ali Vaez: The Middle East Could Still Explode. foreignaffairs.com 15.04.2024.
[3], [4] Haid Haid: The strike on Iran‘s consulate in Syria could be the spark that ignites the Middle East. chathamhouse.org 12.04.2024.
[5] Russian envoy calls UN Security Council meeting on Iran strike parade of hypocrisy. tass.com 14.04.2024.
[6] Iran told Turkey in advance of its operation against Israel, Turkish source says. reuters.com 14.04.2024.
[7] EU plant neue Iran-Sanktionen. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.04.2024.
[8] Baerbock fordert Verschärfung der Sanktionen. deutschlandfunk.de 15.04.2024.
[9] Iran sanctions: US and UK extend measures against Tehran. bbc.co.uk 18.04.2024.
[10] Russian envoy calls UN Security Council meeting on Iran strike parade of hypocrisy. tass.com 14.04.2024.
[11] Erdogan accuses Western nations of double standards, blames Israel for escalation of Mideast crisis. msn.com 17.04.2024.
[12] Never-ending suffering. dawn.com 18.04.2024.
