9:52 p.m. ET, October 29, 2023
Here’s what you should know about Iran’s role in the broader Middle East conflict
By CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim: Israel has “crossed the red lines” in Gaza, which could “force anyone to act,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Sunday, while U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned of an “increased risk “ of a spillover conflict warned in the Middle East. Experts say that while Iran is wary of being drawn into the war between Israel and Hamas, it may not be in full control if the militias it supports in the region – such as the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah – intervene independently , as Hamas suffers severe beatings and deaths The toll in Gaza continues to rise.
“What connects all of these groups to Iran is their anti-Israel policies,” said Sima Shine, director of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, noting that while Iran’s influence on the groups varies However, this does not dictate all of their actions.
Raisi’s comments were not the first warning from an Iranian official about the possibility of a larger conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also warned that Israel’s bombing of Gaza could have far-reaching consequences, saying that if Israel does not stop its airstrikes, “it is very likely that many other fronts will be opened.”
“This option is not out of the question and is becoming more and more likely,” he said in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.
Last Monday, Abdollahian said the US had sent two messages to Iran regarding the escalation in the region.
“The first message said that the United States has no interest in expanding the war, and the second message called on Iran to exercise self-restraint and insisted that Iran should also call on other countries and other sides to exercise self-restraint,” Abdollahian said during a news conference in Tehran, without saying how or when the news was delivered.
He added that while the US said it wanted to de-escalate, it contradicted itself by continuing to support Israel.
Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC, said that there is no appetite or desire for a major war on the part of Iran, the United States or Israel, but that Washington’s failure to contain Israel could inadvertently push the region into escalation.
Read more about Iran’s role in the region.