WASHINGTON, September 29. /TASS/. Israel’s latest actions show that the Jewish state may be seeking to dominate southern Lebanon, something Washington is not going to hamper, Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told TASS in an interview.

"[I] think we have to understand what's going on here now is Israel's plan to create a greater Israel to conquer and dominate the entire Gaza Strip <...> and now to attack Lebanon in order to seize the South of Lebanon up to the and including the Litani River," the political analyst said as he described this as "a long-standing goal of Israel."

According to Boyle, "Israel's on a rampage here." They have used the Hamas uprising of October 7 as a pretext to consolidate Greater Israel. So, the only restraint upon Israel would be the United States government telling them to cease and desist. But there's no evidence that the Biden administration is going to do that," he maintained. Moreover, the expert continued, the Biden administration has been giving what he called full-throated support to Israel's objectives. "They just sent them $8.6 billion, they're sending a second aircraft carrier strike force to the Mediterranean," he added.

"Iran very much wants to avoid a war with Israel and the United States," the professor argued. "If you had a look at the speech by the new president in the UN General Assembly, it was very conciliatory," he concluded.

The situation in the Middle East rapidly escalated after Hamas radicals infiltrated into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel announced a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria before launching a ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave.

On September 23, Israel launched a pre-emptive operation, dubbed "Northern Arrows," against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. On September 27, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah was killed in an airstrike in Beirut. On Saturday, the Shia paramilitary group confirmed the death of its leader.