Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
Iran’s axis
Despite the dramatic scenes of buildings reduced to rubble in Israel, Tehran and other Iranian cities have taken a worse pounding — and other regional countries, including Lebanon, could still be pulled into the conflict.
Caroline Rose, a director at the Washington-based New Lines Institute think tank said that while it seems “clear that Iran-backed proxies across the region — particularly Hezbollah—just do not have the capacity” to enter the fray, Israel could decide to expand the scope of its offensive beyond Iran.
One of the goals announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to eliminate Iran’s “axis of terrorism” — the coalition of Tehran-backed armed groups across the region known as the “Axis of Resistance.”
That goal “is ambiguous and offers Israel the operational space to expand this war to countries it deems are hosting Iran-backed proxies, no matter how weak they may be,” Rose said.
Al-Walid shrugged off the possibility of a new war in Lebanon.
“The war is already present in Lebanon,” he said. “Israel isn’t abiding by the agreement and is striking every day.”
Shouts of jubilation
Hassan Shreif, a 26-year-old student from the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong base of support, said that after last year’s war in Lebanon and the heavy losses suffered by the militant group, many of its supporters “were clearly anguished and didn’t feel vindicated.”
“So anything, even a window breaking in Tel Aviv, is (now) a victory for them,” he said. Every time Iranian missiles pass overhead, he said, people in the area break out in shouts of jubilation.
At the same time, Shreif said, “there’s always a silent group hugging the wall as we say in Arabic, treading carefully and praying we stay out of it.”
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
