THE TELEGRAPH
The latest attack on US forces by an Iranian-backed militia demonstrates that Tehran has lost none of its appetite for seeking to escalate tensions in the Middle East, while at the same time trying to avoid a direct confrontation with Washington.
Ever since Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists launched their deadly assault against Israel on October 7, Tehran has been quietly working to open a series of new fronts in the region.
Attacks launched against northern Israel by Hezbollah, the terrorist organisation Iran has supported in southern Lebanon for four decades, have resulted in many Israeli towns in the area being left deserted as Israelis seek refuge elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have been conducting regular attacks against US bases, while Houthi rebels in Yemen, who also enjoy Tehran’s backing, have caused major disruption to shipping in the Red Sea with their constant attacks on international merchant shipping.
The latest attack against a military base in northern Jordan by an Iranian-backed militia at the weekend, in which three US personnel were killed and another 34 injured, takes Iran’s attempts to escalate the conflict to an entirely new level, with the Biden administration now coming under intense pressure to respond directly to the threat Iran poses to regional stability.
While Iran’s official position, as articulated by the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the immediate aftermath of October 7, is that it has no intention of becoming directly involved in a conflict with the US, its continuing support for the so-called “axis of resistance” – consisting of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis – indicates otherwise.
Certainly, no one in Washington is in any doubt that Iran is directly responsible for encouraging its proxies to maintain their attacks against the US and its allies in the region. This has prompted Donald Trump, the former US president, to warn that the world is on the “brink of World War Three”, while leading Republicans, such as Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, are calling for “a clear, lethal and overwhelming response”.
The killing of US service personnel serving in the Middle East clearly raises the stakes for Joe Biden, the US President, who has so far confined Washington’s response to attacking Iranian proxies, such as the Houthis, in retaliation for their efforts to create further destabilisation in the region…
