US senators unveil resolution which lets America strike Iran
Despite the vulnerability of US troops in the middle east and how even in recent days they have come under fire by militias aligned to Iran in Iraq, a number of US politicians believe that threatening Iran with an all out war is the solution.
A small groups of US senators are introducing a non-binding resolution on Israel’s war on Gaza which includes allowing the US military to strike Iran if the violence were to spill over further in the region.
Not only is the idea poorly conceived – as Iran’s ballistic missile defence shield covers the entire country and any such move would be a declaration of war with Iran – but it is both unrealistic and dangerous. No US president has ever ordered a single shot to be fired on the Islamic republic since it was formed in 1979 through fear of reprisals on a grand scale.
And yet Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal believe that Iran needs a “warning” so that it won’t retaliate when Israel launches what many believe will be airstrikes on positions in southern Lebanon any day soon.
They said that Iran and its proxies must be warned against tipping the region into a large-scale war, as rocket fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah ramps up along the Israel-Lebanon border, according to the London bases, New Arab and agency copy.
READ: Hezbollah chief talks up war by naming latest rockets
During a TV interview, Graham said that the resolution is a warning to Iran to restrain itself in light of attacks by Iran-linked militia groups on US assets in Iraq and Syria.
“If the war expands, if Hezbollah opens up a second front in the north against Israel in a substantial way to overwhelm the Iron Dome, then we should hit the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Graham said who some call a war monger after his distasteful remarks he is said to have made about killing Russians in Ukraine.
“There’s no Hamas without the Ayatollah’s support, there is no Hezbollah without the Ayatollah’s support,” he added, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The killing of any US troops at their bases in Syria and Iraq would also trigger by force a response from Washington, the senator said.
“The resolution puts Iran on notice that all military force in the region will be coming after you if you expand this war by activating Hezbollah or killing an American through your proxies in Syria and Iraq.”
Blumenthal, from the Democratic Party, emphasised that the key word in the resolution was “deterrence”.
“The purpose of the resolution is to deter Iran to stop the war from widening or escalating,” he said.
New Arab/Agencies/Levantis
