Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that while the US does not want to go to war with Iran, Washington will not hesitate to “defend our security” after a series of attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria by proxies Tehran.
There have been at least six publicly acknowledged attacks on US military sites in the Middle East over the past week, prompted by Israel’s response to a surprise Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
“Let me say what we have said consistently to Iranian officials through other channels: The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, we do not want this war to escalate,” Blinken said at Turtle Bay. “But if Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake — we will defend our people, we will defend our security swiftly and decisively.”
Iran-backed forces have attacked military bases in Iraq and Syria that house US personnel with drones, missiles and rockets almost every day since October 17, according to the Pentagon.
On Oct. 19, the destroyer USS Carney also shot down a missile in the Red Sea believed to have been launched by the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen that was targeting Israeli territory.
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Other Iranian proxies believed to be behind the attacks include the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas itself, which carried out the gruesome killing of more than 1,400 people across southern Israel, including at least 33 Americans.
“We know that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people are not to blame for the massacres committed by Hamas,” Blinken told the Security Council. “Palestinian civilians must be protected. This means Hamas must stop using them as human shields.
“It’s hard to think of a more cynical act,” he added.
Iran uses money, weapons and logistical support to support radical terrorist groups across the Middle East to oppose its regional rival Saudi Arabia and fight enemies Israel and the United States. Its proxies include:
- Lebanon’s Hezbollah: The “Party of God” was founded in 1982, its name chosen by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, with 1,500 Revolutionary Guards sent to train its fighters. The group has become a “shadow state” inside Lebanon, and was used by Iran to attack Israel and support Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War. Since the Hamas attack, Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel, and Iran has threatened to launch a full-scale offensive in the north if Israel attacks Gaza.
- Gaza’s Hamas: The “Islamic Resistance Movement” was established in 1987 and has close ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. It controls Gaza and exercises influence in the West Bank. Despite religious differences with Iran, the group shares the goal of eliminating Israel. Intelligence shows Iran knew of and supported Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
- West Bank Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Sometimes an ally and sometimes a rival of Hamas, it also receives funding and weapons from Iran and seeks to overthrow Israel. Over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes hit command centers used by Hamas and PIJ in the West Bank — a sign that the West Bank could be used to attack Israel as it commits troops to Gaza.
- Spies in Jordan: King Abdullah II of Jordan has friendly relations with the US, which Iran is trying to disrupt. The country’s government was nearly overthrown by the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s and fears that Iran was funding anti-government terrorists in the country.
- Syria’s Assad: Syria has been Iran’s closest ally since the two countries allied against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. During the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Iran helped keep President Bashar al-Assad in power by providing him with technical and personnel support. Since the Hamas attack, Syria has claimed that Israel has dropped bombs on an airport in Syria, likely to disrupt the flow of Iranian supplies and weapons. Syria fires artillery into Israeli territory. Meanwhile, drone strikes by Iran-backed groups injured US troops at the Al-Tanf base. While Assad may not go so far as to declare war on Israel, he is happy that Iran is using his country to provide support to Hezbollah and Hamas.
- Yemen’s Houthis: Islamic rebels who want to overthrow the Yemeni government (left). Their slogan is “God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam.” It became a proxy war for Iran, which supports the rebels, and Saudi Arabia, which supports the current president, Rashad al-Alimi. Last week, the Houthis fired nine cruise missiles and 15 drones at Israel in a nine-hour period. They were shot down by the USS Carney, a destroyer the US had sent to the Red Sea.
- Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah: Iran supports several groups in neighboring Iraq, and since the fall of Saddam Hussein has pushed for a Shia-backed government. But Hezbollah’s Kataib, the “Brigade of the Party of God,” is perhaps the most dangerous. It has carried out several attacks on the US military. General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was advising the group when he was killed by a US strike in 2020. Since the Hamas attack, drones and rockets from Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups have been fired at Ain. al-Asad air base used by the US.
- Al-Ashtar Bahraini Brigade: A Shia group that seeks to overthrow the Bahraini monarchy, with the support of Iran.
Blinken also urged other members of the Security Council to “publicly and privately tell Iran and its proxies” not to “open another front against Israel in this conflict” to prevent unrest from spreading throughout the region.
“We urge members to go a step further – make it clear that if Iran or its proxies expand this conflict and put more civilians at risk you – you – will hold them accountable,” he said. “Acting as if the security and stability of the entire region and beyond is on the line, because it is.”
The latest attacks take up to four in the past 24 hours targeting Iraqi military bases that host US troops in Iraq.REUTERS
Blinken then turned to boasting about the $1.6 billion the Biden administration has given to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since taking office in January 2021 and called on “all countries, especially the countries with the greatest capacity to give, to join us in meeting the UN. appeal for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
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“At the heart of our efforts to save innocent lives in this conflict, and in every conflict, for that matter, is our core belief that every civilian life is equally precious,” he said. “There is no hierarchy in protecting the lives of civilians. A civilian is a civilian is a civilian, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, creed.
“That is why America mourns the loss of every innocent life in this crisis, including innocent Israeli and Palestinian men, women children, the elderly, Muslims, Jews, Christians, people of all races and religions,” he added.
The secretary further pledged that the US will continue to work with the United Nations “to build mechanisms that allow humanitarian aid to continue to flow to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas or any other terrorist group.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
