Netanyahu is determined to drag the US into war with Iran

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

In an unprecedented and dangerous escalation, Israel targeted the Iranian Consulate in Damascus on April 1. It has been many years since Israel has bombed targets inside Iran, and the diplomatic building, directly attached to the Iranian Embassy, is considered the same as an attack on Tehran. According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in 1961, articles 21 and 22 concern embassies and all types of diplomatic missions.

According to accepted international norms and traditions, diplomatic premises are considered part of the sovereignty and territory of the sending states. Therefore, the attack on the Iranian consulate can be seen as an attack on Iranian territory.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X their condemnation of the targeting of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, @KSAmofaEN. Saudi Arabia is the most powerful Arab country, and had come to a restored relationship with Iran, brokered by China in March 2023.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned the Israeli aggression and mourned the commander of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and Brigadier General Mohammad-Hadi Haji-Rahimi, as well as IRGC officers Hossein Amanollahi, Seyyed Mehdi Jalalati, Mohsen Sadaghat, Ali Agha Babaei, and Seyyed Ali Salehi Rouzbahani.
Israel’s F-35 fighter jets had launched six missiles from the occupied Golan Heights in a targeted attack on the Iranian Consulate’s building.

The Consulate and Embassy are situated in the upscale densely populated neighborhood of Mezze. All the neighboring buildings lost their window glass from the blast. Innocent Syrian civilians were injured while in their own homes at 5:00 pm, preparing to break their fast during Ramadan at 6:45 pm. Pedestrians were injured walking by as they shopped or returned home. A Syrian champion swimmer is hospitalized in very serious condition from wounds she received while walking in the street. The parked cars in the street were damaged and set ablaze.

“The aggressor Zionist regime bears full responsibility for its consequences and the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its legitimate and inherent right under international law and the United Nations Charter to take a decisive response to such reprehensible acts,” Zahra Ershadi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, wrote late Monday in a letter to the UN secretary general.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, confirmed on Telegram that a Security Council meeting to discuss the Israeli attack will be held on Tuesday at Russia’s request.

Iran will be preparing for a retaliatory response to the Israeli attack. The White House said the US was not warned in advance by Israel of the planned attack. US President Biden has warned Israel previously that the US does not want the Israeli war on the Palestinian people of Gaza to grow wider into a regional conflict which would certainly involve the US, as the military sponsor of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Iran is the chief enemy of Israel, and he famously presented a cartoon drawing of a bomb in his speech to the UN General Assembly, warning countries to prevent Iran in obtaining a nuclear weapon. US President Obama made a deal with Iran, and it was working to contain Iran’s capability to make materials to create a nuclear bomb, but US President Trump ripped up the US treaty, which included five other nations as signatories. Netanyahu lobbied Trump to tear up the deal, so that Israel could keep Iran in the hot-seat, as enemy number one.

Netanyahu faces thousands of Jews in the streets in Israel protesting his refusal to make a ceasefire deal with Hamas and bring home the Israeli hostages in Gaza. Instead, Netanyahu is determined to keep the war going, which has killed over 32,000 people, mainly women and children. The Israeli public is now calling for him to resign, as they see he has brought the country to its knees in Gaza, and after almost six months of war, Hamas is not defeated, while Israeli soldiers and hostages are dying, and some may be starving inside Gaza.

Netanyahu’s strategy is to deflect. He seeks to create a bigger war to deflect from his domestic problems. His calculated strike on Iranian diplomatic property in Damascus, was his first step to take the focus off Gaza, and get the US involved in a conflict with Iran. The US Congress will support this, even if the Biden administration is reluctant. The personal relationship between Biden and Netanyahu is at its lowest point. Biden had been asking Netanyahu to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza, and Netanyahu flatly refused. Biden had told Netanyahu that going into Rafah was a “Red Line”, but Netanyahu has refused to change his military plans.

Although Biden can stop the war in Gaza with just one phone call cutting off the free flow of US taxpayer paid weapons to Israel, he refuses to. Which brings us to the conclusion: that the Gaza war, and the 32,000 plus lives lost, are the responsibility of President Joe Biden, and no one else. Even though voters from Michigan and Minnesota have already said they will not vote for Biden because of his complicity in the genocide in Gaza, still Biden is willing to lose the election to Trump for the sake of Zionism, which is a fascist political ideology hiding behind a religion.

Experts warn that the international community should take actions to stop Israel from further aggravating tensions and violating international laws. The region, and the US are on the brink of a war which could be avoided by the US, but probably Biden and the Congress will decide to follow Netanyahu into the abyss, all the while depending on the hardworking US taxpayer to foot the bill, and pay the bloody costs.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist