At long last, Israel has taken the much awaited step to confront the Iranian threat. Like the legendary sword of damocles, this threat have dangled over the fragile neck of the Jewish state for the past twenty years or more. In its nearly 80 years of existence, Israel have endured much hostility and friendlessness from its neighbors. But while most countries of the Middle East have taken several steps back in their aggressive posture towards Israel, Iran has remained implacable and unyielding in its belligerence.
In the previous wars and military activities against Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have been on the forefront. But after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, a lot changed. The Arab world began to see the prospects for accommodation and rapproachment. Egypt was the first to make peace with Israel (The Camp David Accord, 1978). This was followed by Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Saudi Arabia, a major player in the Middle East, was on the verge of normalising relations with Israel when the gory events of October 7 swept down and threw a heavy spanner in the works. By many indications, Iran was virtually the only sovereign country implacably opposed to the existence of Israel in the Middle East.
In 2005, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, president of Iran, stated that “the regime occupying Jerusalem must be erased from the pages of time.” The statement, which needed no interpretation, was a clear definitive call for the destruction of the state of Israel. And despite the global outrage which the chilling statement attracted, Iran continued, over the last twenty years, to fine-tune its determination to attain the capacity for nuclear weapons. And successive regimes in Teheran have considered the nuclear objective a matter of national urgency.
Israel’s biggest ally, the United States, working hand in hand with its allies in the West, have tried various measures to persuade Iran to give up it’s nuclear programmes. These measures include a wide range of economic, diplomatic and military sanctions against Iran. But Iran on it’s part insists that it’s nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes and not intended as weapons of war against anyone or any country.
Israel also never let up its opposition to the idea of a nuclear Iran. Successive Israeli governments have carried out pre-emptive measures against Iran’s nuclear programme. These include direct attacks on nuclear facilities, targeted assassinations of Iranian scientists and academics involved in the project, as well as numerous clandestine destabilisation activities.
Through the instruments of the United Nations and other global channels and outlets, Israel has continued to prick the conscience of the world on the dangers it faced should Iran be allowed to attain a nuclear status. But Iran remained undeterred in rhetorics and bombasts. Iran also makes good it’s belligerence by the creation of hostile entities across the region which remained constant security thorns in the Israeli flesh. From Hezbollah in Lebanon to Houthis in Yemen, from Hamas in Gaza to the Islamic Jihad, etc, Iran continued to provide arms, funds and various categories of enablement required to heighten Israel’s security dilemma.
Under president Bush, Israel came within a hair’s breath of striking Iran’s nuclear resources. However Washington was able to succeed in restraining Israel at the last minute. Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at the helm during the period, reluctantly gave in to the pressure but continued to argue, in every forum and every opportunity, that Israel believes only military action would deter Iran.
In retrospect, Iran’s nuclear programme started in 1957 with the signing of a “Civil Nuclear Cooperation” agreement with the U.S. Under the Shah, The Teheran Nuclear Research Center was built in 1967. This was further expanded in the 1970s with a design to generate 23,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear power.
All these changed after the Iranian Revolution (1979), which was followed almost immediately by the Iran-Iraq War. At the end of the war and with America now an enemy, (The Great Satan), according to the leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeni, Iran seemed to have lost interest in the nuclear programme. Soon after, Iran began to pursue the programme secretly and for purposes long departed from the original intent. And with the utterances coming out from Teheran, Israel and the U.S. felt that the best option was to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities. And this could be done peacefully or violently.
The negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany), known as JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) reached a deal under president Obama. The agreement was to limit the uranium enrichment, reduce its stockpile and allow international inspection by the IAEA. In return, Iran will be allowed relief from economic sanctions and offered other integrative measures into the global system. This arrangement remained effective until 2018 when president Trump (in his first term) withdrew from the JCPOA deal.
In response, Iran began to exceed its nuclear limits while the U.S. worked towards greater sanctions. Iran also embarked on the creation and arming of aggressive hostile elements against Israel across the region. These proxies were seen as Iran’s buffer against the inevitable showdown with Israel which was considered just a matter of time. These blood thirsty allies of Iran include Hezbollah, a Shia militia group based in Lebanon; Hamas, a Sunni islamist group operating in the Gaza Strip, with a vowed commitment to the destruction of Israel.
Others are the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group also operating in Gaza; Houthis in Yemen, a Shia Islamist group; Kataib Hezbollah, a radical Shia militia group based in Iraq, etc. Iran has a total of about ten terrorists groups and militia all sworn to one purpose – “the destruction of Israel.” Iran provides funding, ammunition and training to these organisations. While Hamas receives $100 million annually from Iran, Hezbollah receives $700 million. In addition, they were provided both short and long range missiles, drones and other highly sophisticated military equipments.
It is often said that in international relations, “there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies”. This aphorism have been amply demonstrated in the tripartite relationship between Israel, Iran and the United States. Before the Revolution of 1979, (earlier mentioned), Israel enjoyed a budding relationship with Iran. In fact, Iran was the second Muslim country after Turkey to recognise the young state Israel as a Sovereign nation. But with the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini ruptured all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, opting instead for a policy of antagonism.
To be continued tomorrow.
Dr Egbo wrote from Abuja.
