Israel’s aerial attacks in region proxy war against Iran: Analyst

A political commentator tells Press TV that Israel has been waging a “proxy war” against Iran by escalating its aerial attacks against regional countries, describing the assaults as an election stunt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to win more votes.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is very keen to show that he is the leader who can stand up to Iran, which is how he is defining the narrative within those Israeli elections,” Jonathan Fryer, author and broadcaster, told Press TV’s The Debate program on Monday.

“He is, of course, pointing the finger at Tehran, accusing Iran of using so-called proxies in different countries, including Syria and Iraq, and now of course by the attacks on Hezbollah directly in Lebanon and … Palestinians, widening that front, I think a lot of it actually is for his own domestic audience,” he added.

He said that “the Israelis are keen to try to persuade the Americans that Israel is under the threat from Iran even if …there have never been a direct attack on Israel from Iran.”

The political commentator said that the Israeli premier “is playing gamble. He… needs to portray himself as the strongman leader and if you get rid of that man then Israel’s security will not be guaranteed.”

“It is a high strategy of course because it is alienating not only the Arab countries in the region…but also some European countries as well.  Because this Israeli adventurism with drones is being watched with considerable concerns in some European capitals,” Fryer added.

He further said that the recent wave of air raids on positions of pro-government Iraqi forces, which are said to be linked to the Israeli regime and the US, could remove US forces from Iraq.

Michael Springmann, former American diplomat, joining the show, also said the recent wave of Israeli raids in the region was kind of Israeli proxy war against Iran.

“The Israelis…have been pushing this war by proxy against Iran for years. These attacks are nothing new. They have been using Lebanese airspace to fire rockets and bombs into Syria, claiming that they are under attacks by Iran,” he said.

He added that “Israel, the United States and to some extent Saudi Arabia and [Persian] Gulf states, particularly the United Arab Emirates” are "steering the situation" in the Middle East.

The analyst further lauded Iran for making diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.

Israel has a history of targeting anti-Daesh forces in the region, but it has sharply stepped up its acts of aggression simultaneously on Syria, Iraq and Lebanon over the past weeks.

PressTV-Israel drone strikes declaration of war: Lebanon’s Aoun

Two drones crashed in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday.

The regime claimed earlier this week that it had launched strikes on an Iranian site in Syria. That claim was rejected by both Damascus and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, which is — along with Iran and Russia — assisting the Syrian army in its counter-terrorism operations. Hezbollah said two of its fighters had been killed in that missile strike near Damascus.

The regime also sent two explosives-laden drones into Lebanon on what Hezbollah has described as a “bombing” mission this. One of the drone, hit a Hezbollah media facility in a southern Beirut neighborhood, while the other, which appeared to have been sent by Israel to search for the first one, went down in an empty plot nearby after being detonated in the air.

PressTV-Iraqi Hashd al-Sha’abi forces down spy drone over Nineveh

Iraqi volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi forces have shot down a spy drone as it was flying over its command center in the country’s northern province of Nineveh.

The assault drew a stern warning from Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah besides Lebanese leaders.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv is widely reported to have been behind positions of Iraq’s anti-Daesh Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), prompting condemnations from senior Iraqi authorities.

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