Current and former American officials expressed concerns on Tuesday that an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian embassy in Syria could lead to an escalation and trigger retaliatory strikes against Israel and its US ally in the region, according to The New York Times.
Officials stated that the attack, which killed three generals of Iran’s Quds Force and four other officers on Monday, dealt a serious blow to the external military and intelligence service of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Ralph Goff, a former senior CIA official who served in the Middle East, called the Israeli strike “incredibly reckless.”
“It will only result in escalation by Iran and its proxies, which is very dangerous [to American troops in the region who could be targeted in retaliatory strikes by Tehran’s proxies].”
A Defence Department spokesperson reported that US troops based in southeastern Syria shot down a strike drone following an Israeli attack on Damascus, the Syrian capital. No injuries or damage were reported.
Goff stated that the strike in Syria was in line with the “long-term strategy of degrading” Iran’s IRGC and its Quds Force unit, as well as “punishing them for ongoing plots to kill or kidnap Israeli Jews around the world.”
Syria has been a key region for Israel in the long-running shadow war between Iran and Israel as it tries to weaken Iran’s ability to move advanced weaponry by land and air closer to Israel’s borders.
Dana Stroul, formerly the Pentagon’s top Middle East policy official, called it “the Israeli version of the US strike on Qassem Soleimani.”
The strike yesterday is a significant escalation and risks tipping an already volatile, unstable region into full-scale war. This is the Israeli version of the U.S. strike on [Qassem Soleimani].
Stroul was referring to the former longtime leader of the Quds Force, who was killed by an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport in 2020. Since then, command and control of the Quds Force was degraded, she added.
“But Iran’s core strategy never changed. Tehran will continue to invest in its terrorist network abroad in order to keep the fight away from its own borders.”
She also stated that the broader point was that IRGC “operatives and leaders are not safe anywhere.”
The question is, will Iran respond in a manner that de-escalates the situation, or will it climb further up the escalation ladder?
Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, attempted on Tuesday to allay fears of escalation by claiming that the United States was not involved in the airstrike and had no prior knowledge of it. She stated that the message was also delivered directly to Iran.
“Tensions being high in the region, we wanted to make it very clear in private channels that the US had no involvement in the strike in Damascus.”
General McKenzie stated that he expected Iran to respond in some way, but he downplayed concerns about a major escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran.
Iran’s options to hit Israel are very, very limited. And the Israelis aren’t going to back down.
