Trump and Netanyahu assume the war could last longer

The United States had been gathering an unprecedented military contingent in the Middle East for weeks, but the unofficial confirmation that everything was about to blow up was recorded on Friday, when the embassy in Jerusalem gave the order to evacuate all non-essential personnel and their families. The attack on Iran was imminent and began a few hours later.

In just over three days, the operation Epic Furywith which the Trump Administration intended to destroy the ballistic missile and nuclear programs and behead the ayatollah regime, has unleashed a regional conflict that continues to escalate. This morning, Tehran attacked the US diplomatic delegations and military bases in Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain with its drones and projectiles. The damage, for now, is unclear.

Despite the precise attacks against its political and military leadership, Iran is not wavering in its retaliatory actions against Washington and Tel Aviv, which has also contributed to the escalation of the conflict with a bombing campaign on Lebanon and alleged targets of the Shiite group Hezbollah. This Tuesday, the Israeli Army ordered its troops to advance in the south of the country to conquer strategic positions.

The ferocious bombing campaign has managed to degrade Iranian air defenses and provide air superiority to US and Israeli fighter jets, but the course of the war is quite uncertain. Even from the Trump Administration, contradictory assessments have been offered about what could happen.

The Republican president has already acknowledged that the conflict may be longer than initially thought: “Whatever the time is, it’s fine, whatever is necessary (…) we projected between four and five weeks, but we have the capacity to go much further than that,” he said at an event at the White House. Hours earlier, his Secretary of Defense promised that “this is not Iraq, it will not be an endless war.”

A large column of black smoke fills the sky over Beirut after the Israeli attacks.

Khalil Ashawi

Reuters

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, also rejected the idea of ​​a protracted conflict. “I said it could be quick and decisive. It may take some time, but it won’t be years. It’s not an endless war,” he predicted in an interview with Fox News.

The region, on alert

The bombing campaign in Washington and Tel Aviv, which managed to eliminate Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and numerous senior military and Revolutionary Guard commanders, has hit headquarters, air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers and destroyers of the Iranian Navy.

Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of state, promised that “the hardest blows are yet to come.” Trump boasted of having an “unlimited supply of weapons.”

The combined force also destroyed infrastructure of the Iranian internal security services, responsible for maintaining order, repressing protests and spreading the Islamic Republic’s propaganda.

Satellite images analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security revealed that at least two bombs hit the Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant, which was already attacked last June. The Iranian human rights organization HRANA put the death toll at 742 on Tuesday, in addition to reflecting 971 injuries.

Tehran, from the first moment, has launched wave after wave of missiles and drones at different points in Israel and American targets throughout the Middle East. In recent hours, explosions have been reported in countries that host US Army bases, such as Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The US embassy in Riyadh closed this Tuesday as a result of the impact of two Iranian drones that caused a fire and minor damage. Another unmanned device reached the diplomatic delegation in Kuwait on Monday, which has been closed indefinitely. The Revolutionary Guard has claimed responsibility for the destruction of a base in Bahrain.

Attacks have also been reported at the Dubai international airport, hotels and other civil and economic infrastructure, such as Amazon offices or the most important Aramco refinery in Saudi Arabia, where a worrying fire broke out due to the remains of a downed drone. In Oman, an oil tank at the commercial port of Duqm was damaged by an unmanned aircraft.

The US State Department has asked non-essential government personnel and their families to leave Iraq, Jordan and Bahrain.

According to the think tank Institute for the Studies of War (ISW), Iraqi militias allied with Iran threaten to expand their attacks on countries in the region that host US troops, such as Jordan. The Houthis could follow the same strategy in the Horn of Africa. In fact, the drones launched against the British base in Cyprus were claimed by Hezbollah.

In its multi-pronged strategy, the ayatollah regime, still without a new leader, seeks to cause a blow to world trade with the interruption of maritime transport by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Also that the Gulf countries pressure Trump to end his offensive so that profits from the sale of oil can flow again.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan condemned this Monday the “unjustified” attacks with missiles and drones launched by Iran against their territories in a joint statement, backed by the United States, warning that they represent a dangerous escalation that threatens regional stability.