THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Voices Anand Neelakantan Sumeet Bhasin Ravi Shankar Anuja Chandramouli Ganesh Saili Mata Amritanandamayi Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment October 13 2024 SUNDAY PAGES 12 Image: AI illustration I RAN ISRAEL AT WAR SOLATED NSECURE MPLODING Apprehensive of Israel‘s retaliation, Iran‘s ayatollahs are cornered, and facing diplomatic and political ostracism, having turned their country into a global pariah, imperilling the survival of their regime I By Medha Dutta Yadav t was one of the largest airstrikes on a city in history On September 27, . 60 tonne of bunker-busting bombs penetrated an underground bunker where Hezbollah’s powerful chief Hassan Nasrallah and his senior colleagues in terror, were gathered to discuss fresh strategy to attack Israel. All those present were immediately killed, including Nasrallah who was a personal friend of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The cleric announced five days of mourning for what he called the “martyrdom of the great Nasrallah”. On July 31, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh had been blown up by a targeted Israeli strike in an apartment in Tehran, which showed the penetration of Mossad, sending the message that “You harm us, we can get you anywhere anytime.” Israeli spies had reportedly infiltrated Iran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary “an eye for an eye” is Israel’s motto. it neutralised the Hezbollah and hamas leadership by taking out (clockwise) Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine Israeli jets bomb Gaza Guard Corps (IRGC) and recruited agents to identify Haniyeh’s room. A week after, Nasrallah’s successor and cousin Hashem Safieddine was eliminated in another Israeli airstrike. Iran and especially its proxies have brought untold suffering in the region after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, and Israel responded with savage bombings. The death toll in Gaza is horrifying: nearly 42,000 Palestinian men, women and children killed, though the number of casualties are reeled out by the Health Ministry run by Hamas, which is accused by Israel and many news agencies of fudging figures. The exact number of people killed in Lebanon by Israeli strikes is not known, but 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced after the bombings. Many Iranian senior officers, too, are being killed as the war rages on, both in Israeli bombings, and by non-state actors. “They have weakened Iranians because their proxies have been weakened,” notes a former Indian diplomat and Arab expert. Iran is with its back to the wall, but its isolation—even in the Middle East—goes back beyond the current war. After Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, descendant of 2,500 years of monarchy in the Persian Gulf, was overthrown by leftist students loyal to the Islamic clergy the Shia-Sunni divide , with the Arab world led to the Iran-Iraq War. The hostility continues at varying degrees to this day This year, in response . to Iran-backed Houthi missiles fired at Israel, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) massively bombed Yemen, which is more than 2,000 km away Major ports and power . stations, arms and ammunition depots and missile sites operated by the Houthis were bombed. The Houthis are part of the so-called “axis of resistance” which Iran has put together in the region to attack Israel and become the dominant power in West Asia. On October 7, the exiled Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Iran, who fled with his family to the US following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, came out in the open, promising an end to theocratic autocracy and positioning himself to be Iran’s saviour. He has announced that the current fighting is “not the Iranian people’s war”. AN EYE FOR AN EYE: The Old Testament rule of “an eye for an eye” is Israel’s motto. Its tactic of neutralising the Hezbollah leadership, both at the top and the ground level, is wildly successful. Israeli bombs took out Fuad Shukr, Nasrallah’s right-hand man; Nabil Kaouk, deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council; Ibrahim Akil Ibrahim, the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces and member of the Jihad Council; Ahmad Wehbe commander of the Radwan Forces; Mohammad Surour who headed Hezbollah’s drone unit; Ibrahim Kobeisi, leader of Hezbollah’s missile unit, etc. Israel’s year-old war of vengeance has wiped out nearly all of Hamas top leadership, not just Haniyeh: IDF eliminated 18 top Hamas commanders including the elusive Mohammed Deif, head of the Qassam Brigades and a mastermind of the October 7 attack, and Deputy Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri who was also a founder of the Qassam Brigades. Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the man ultimately responsible for the October 7 attack is cowering in an unknown tunnel in Gaza. The IDF calls him a “dead man walking”. US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said on CBS TV’s 60 Minutes programme last week that she considered Iran to be America’s greatest enemy “Iran . has American blood on their hands,” she said, adding, “And what we saw in terms of just this attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles, what we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power—that is one of my highest priorities.” Sinwar is one of the US-designated terrorists. Iran-US enmity goes back a long way when on November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the US embassy and held more than 50 Americans hostages for 444 days. Ayatollah Khomeini, who ruled Iran after the ouster of Shah Pehelvi called America the “Great Satan”. LONELY AND ANGRY: Iran’s diplomatic and global solitude is a result of its own actions to revive the Persian Empire. Perhaps no other dictatorship stands as isolated as Iran, whose allies Russia and China can at best be described as fair weather friends. Western sanctions against Iran have crippled its economy though they haven’t , weakened the grip of the clergy . Iran is the second-most sanctioned county in the world after Russia. After IRGC thugs quelled peaceful protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, and subsequent rape, torture and blinding of girls and women who would not wear a hijab, it brought the Islamic Republic international isolation. For the second year in a row, Iran was not invited to the Munich Security Conference— one of the major annual initiatives where world leaders come together to uphold global peace. Europe sees Iran as an aggressor because it militarily supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Iran’s relationship with the Saudis, in spite of normalising relations, has become chilly after attacks by Iranian proxies, the Houthis, on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Saudi officials have suspended Umrah pilgrimages from Iran and turned back on its promise for investments. Bahrain, Oman and Egypt remain hostile to resuming ties with Tehran. Tehran was furious when in 2020, the historic Abraham Accords was signed between Bahrain and Israel: Iran claims Bahrain belongs to it. There are no Iranian ambassadors posted in its embassies in London and Paris. In 2023, Iran launched a missile attack on Pakistan, which was met with retaliation. It was removed from the presidency of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women last year; which should not have happened in the first place. Iran is on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international task force that combats money laundering and terrorism. There has been no global condemnation for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan in the same airstrike that eliminated Nasrallah. In April, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the elite Quds Force and his deputy Gen. Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi died in an Israeli bombing that demolished the Iranian consulate in Damascus: Iran is a supporter of Syrian dictator President Assad along with Russia. ABANDONED AND ABHORRED: The US remains Israel’s powerful ally with no doubts that it will continue to support Israel and help shore up its defences. The rest of the Western world is also largely backing Israel, though France’s Leftist president Emmanuel Macron, fighting for his political life, has called for an arms embargo on Israel. Most Gulf countries, except Qatar, which has been hosting the Hamas top-terror leadership, have chosen to remain neutral. In this Turn to page 2