Ukrainian Diplomat: US Sent Signal To Israel's Enemies

Will it come to a big war in the Middle East?

On October 7, the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War, Israel was subjected to a massive, multi-layered terrorist attack by Palestinian militants.

Footage of captured and killed Israeli soldiers, whose bodies were mocked by Hamas militants, appeared after massive missile attacks on Israeli territory, many killed and wounded civilians and the Israeli Defence Minister announced that war had been declared on Israel.

Was it only Hamas's decision? What is the possible assistance from Iran? Charter97.org journalists spoke about this with Ukrainian diplomat, political scientist, and expert at the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Foundation, Alexander Khara:

– It is obvious that Hamas and Hezbollah are groups that are called “proxy”. They receive sponsorship and follow orders from other states. I mean, that their members do not make decisions.

It is still difficult to say about the degree of Iranian involvement at the moment. I read an article by The Wall Street Journal yesterday that actually said that there were meetings in Lebanon, and this attack was planned with the Iranian military. If this is confirmed, of course, this could cause a major regional conflict, the consequences of which will affect not only the region but the entire world, given the extreme importance of the region in terms of energy resources and so on. Therefore, what is happening now is definitely not the initiative of any number of extremists.

It is impossible to plan such a complex attack on your own, not to mention the weapons and their quantity. Imagine the number of rockets (they say about five thousand) that were quietly delivered to the territory controlled by the Israelis. Therefore, there was definitely external help. It is impossible to say yet whether Iran was there and to what extent, whether there were other players.

It is no secret that the Russian Federation supports terrorist organizations, as the Soviet Union previously did. Again, the extent of the Kremlin’s involvement in this is still difficult to assess. Although we saw that the Iranian leadership encouraged the terrorists, the Russian leadership allegedly called for a ceasefire, and so on and so forth. They showed no condemnation of the barbarity we saw. Therefore, this is also quite, let’s say, a clear definition, a clear characteristic of these two regimes - Russian and Iranian.

– Could this lead to direct clashes between Iran and Israel?

– I think that this cannot be ruled out. We must understand that what happened for Israel is no less in scale than September 11 [a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks committed in the US by members of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda - Ed.]. The intelligence services did not prevent the attack. They are trying to settle the situation only now, at the cost of heroism and a large number of lives.

One can imagine the situation in which the Israeli Prime Minister finds himself. Netanyahu will be accountable politically to his opponents and to the Israelis for such a failure and for the fact that, according to the media, most of the combat-ready forces were located in a different place and not at the place of the attack. They will ask him that question, and accordingly, in order to overcome them, politicians usually try to take some rather drastic steps.

It is possible that they will do something regarding Iran. Of course, this is not in the interests of either Israel or us. For Ukraine, such a regional war means a distraction that will give Putin more freedom to act. And for the region, this means a big bloody war, in which other states will be involved one by one.

However this time the situation looks definitely better than 50 years ago during the Yom Kippur War [on October 6, 1973, the armies of Egypt and Syria simultaneously invaded Israel - Ed.]. Israel was actually alone at that time, and the entire Arab environment was against it. Now the situation is different: Egypt keeps a low profile, and the United Arab Emirates condemned these terrorist acts. It is clear that there are other states that could support Israel. Now you can look at the reaction of Turkey and Azerbaijan, it’s a little further away, but Ankara is a fairly important player. It is clear that they do not support, let’s say, Iran's proxy forces. Since Tehran is a threat to them, they will side with Israel. But in any case, such a conflict will result in disaster for the region and for all of us.

– What will be the US reaction?

– This is a clear signal to warn Israel's enemies not to do anything stupid. The US does not want to get involved in a major conflict. If we look at the domestic political situation in Washington, now is clearly not the right time for such a war.

Although 90% of politicians (from far-left Democrats to far-right Republicans) say that Israel should be supported. But now is definitely not the right time for such a war, the United States need no war now, they will try to prevent it.

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