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Iran, its allies my attack Israel on several fronts — expert

Hassan Fahs sees a direct indication that events will develop in accordance with such a scenario in a statement by Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of the Shiite Hezbollah party

BEIRUT, August 2. /TASS/. Strikes on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah military commander Fouad Ali Shokr in Beirut and chief of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran are likely to be carried out on several fronts, Arab expert Hassan Fahs, a leading analyst at the Research and Strategic Studies Center in Beirut, believes.

"The retaliatory attack will begin soon after Ismail Haniyeh's funeral in Qatar. It is not ruled out that it could happen in a day or two," he told a TASS correspondent. "However, unlike the attack on Israel on April 13 after the death of Iranian generals in Damascus, this time Tehran may involve its regional allies in the operation: the Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthis and Iraqi Shiite formations, which will strike from several fronts at once, thus creating certain problems for the Israeli missile defense system.

The expert sees a direct indication that events will develop in accordance with such a scenario in a statement by Hassan Nasrallah, the general secretary of the Shiite Hezbollah party. He told a rally in Beirut on August 1 that Israel does not yet know where the missiles will come from.

"Nasrallah made it clear that attacks on Israeli territory from different points will now be regular," the expert emphasized. "This is how we should interpret his words that the entire region will become a battlefield."

Fahs does not rule out that this time the rockets may be aimed not only at military bases on Israeli territory, but also at a number of strategic sites, including gas production platforms in the Mediterranean Sea.

"Such a scenario, however, will give [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu a free hand for massive attacks on neighboring Lebanon and, possibly, Syria. In other words, a regional war will become a reality," the expert stressed.

According to the analyst, a stop to the aggression in the Gaza Strip may prevent an undesirable march of events, but for this the US must put hard pressure on Israel.

"If this does not happen, the US will be responsible for Israeli actions, likely destruction and casualties," Fahs pointed out.