FPI / April 18, 2024
Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
On April 13, Iran shattered precedent by launching its first major direct attack against Israel from Iranian territory that Israeli sources said consisted of strikes by over 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles.
Earlier, Iran launched a new and barbaric chapter in its longstanding proxy war to destroy Israel when it provided leadership, funding and training to its Gaza-based proxy Hamas to commence its October 7, 2023 war against Israel.
As part of its retaliation against Iran, Israel on April 1 bombed an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 7 Iranian military officials including a senior Quds Force commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi — a key Iranian leader and organizer the October 7 Hamas War.
Since that attack, Iran has prepared for an unprecedented direct strike on Israel and during an April 12 press conference responding to indications of an Iranian strike, President Joe Biden gave Iran a blunt one-word message: “Don’t.”
A few days before April 12, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to use its influence on Iran not to attack Israel.
But China did not use its leverage, and Iran ignored Biden’s warning.
U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that 50 percent of Iran’s ballistic missiles failed at launch or crashed.
But in a resounding victory, Israel missile defenses and combat aircraft, along with assists from U.S. air and naval missile defenses, British aircraft and even Jordanian defenses, 99 percent of Iran’s missiles and drones were shot down.
U.S. combat aircraft in the region shot down about 70 drones, and others were shot down by British and Jordanian aircraft.
In addition, U.S. Navy destroyers were able to down three Iranian medium range ballistic missiles with the RTX SM-3 surface-to-air missile (SAM).
But despite this significant success for modern Israeli and U.S. defensive technology, April 14 was dominated by U.S. reporting that President Biden had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to retaliate for Iran’s unprecedented April 13 missile-drone strike.
Furthermore, Biden reportedly told Netanyahu that the U.S. would not participate in any Israeli military retaliation.
Also on April 14, China’s state media Xinhua noted that China’s Ambassador to the United Nations, “called for calm and restraint after Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel over the latter's deadly assault on the Iranian consulate in Syria.”
Seeking to put blame on Israel, on April 15 Chinese state media Global Times stated, “Chinese experts warn that Israel's response could trigger a dangerous cycle of retaliatory strikes between the two countries, destabilizing the Gulf region and worsening the overall security situation in the Middle East.”
And seeking to exacerbate Israeli-U.S. divisions, Global Times further stated,
“The reactions from both the U.S. and Iran indicate that Israel has failed to escalate tensions between the US and Iran in order to tie Washington tight to the Middle East… Israel's current "stubbornness" has clearly disrupted the Biden administration's international and Middle East strategies, as well as the U.S. domestic arrangements for the presidential election.”
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