Airstrike in Iraq kills Iran-backed militia leader as regional tensions escalate • FRANCE 24

Airstrike in Iraq kills Iran-backed militia leader as regional tensions escalate • FRANCE 24

Let’s get some more analysis on what’s happening in the region I’m here with our International Affairs editor kavan gorjestani kavan welcome to the program um lots happening in the region does any of this suggest to you that a broader conflict is now Brewing well there is of

Course a concern because of the number of events that are happening in the region violent events and that is why you’re hearing uh Western countries including uh the United States France calling uh for uh all parties involved to sort of not escalate the situation but when you break it down things are a

Little bit more complicated they’re basically three areas of focus when you’re talking about a potential spillover there’s Lebanon uh there’s Iran and there’s the Red Sea with the htis when it comes to Lebanon of course uh with the killing of the Hamas number two there was of course worry that uh

Hezbollah would react because it was done in a Hezbollah a stronghold but when when Hassan Nala the leader of Hezbollah spoke yesterday uh he did condemn that killing he did uh pledge support to Hamas he said that there would be retaliation but beyond that rhetoric he also seem to be trying to

Keep Hezbollah sort of out of this and trying to frame this as something between Israel and Hamas and he even said that Israel has been uh basically messaging the idea that they were targeting Hamas and that their intention was not to start something bigger with Hezbollah or with Lebanon that’s not to

Say that there aren’t skirmishes and uh violent uh events at the border between Lebanon and Israel between the IDF and Hezbollah but so far it looks like both sides are trying to tone things down a little bit similar uh what is happening with Iran you’re seeing a lot of strong

Rhetoric blaming Israel for all of that but the Iranians always blame Israel really for most of these types of attacks whether they’re saying that Israel was directly involved or in the broader term But there again it’s a lot of rhetoric there are strikes here and there but it’s not something that is

Necessarily that newer when you’re thinking about what happens in the region the real concern at least right now is the Red Sea and that’s why you’re seeing a lot of these countries come together to try to protect those commercial ships that are going through the Red Sea because the hotties have

Said very clearly and they show it very regularly every few days they target those commercial ships and they have shown no uh real uh intent intent to stop or to minimize what they’re doing and so the focus of the Western Alliance at least is to protect that Red Sea okay

And of course the US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin is flying into the midst of all of that on his latest Regional tour I mean he’s going to have plenty to keep him busy what do you think he’s hoping to achieve well uh this trip has

Been in the works for a couple of weeks we’ve been hearing the fact that he was going to go there at some point at the start of the year so it had been planned before all of these events happened so uh it’s likely going to change a little

Bit the tone of uh what he was going there for we don’t know yet exactly what countries he’s going to go to the idea is that he is going to Israel that will be his first stop he is expected to go to the West Bank as well the uh Turkish

Foreign minister has said that he has a meeting planned with uh the secretary uh in Turkey so that’s a possibility too as well as uh the UAE Saudi Arabia Qatar and Jordan so all these big countries in the Middle East involved in this conflict the idea has always been to try

To avoid the spillover that we’ve been talking about and now more than ever that message is going to be coming again from the Secretary of State he’s going to try to see how he can work with all those other countries to try to keep the violence uh contained if you will and

Avoid it from broadening uh there is that fear that we were talking about the of expansion and that will likely be the real Focus also in Israel there will be a focus on uh what the Americans have been trying to push Israel to do which is switch from high intensity conflict

To sort of a more targeted approach to the Hamas leaders and of course uh there is always still the question of hostages that are still being held and the Americans are part of the countries that mediate those talks and they’re hoping that maybe they can bring this a little

Bit forward okay well thank you very much indeed for that kavan gorani from our International Affairs desk thank you very much indeed

A US airstrike on the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad on Thursday killed a high-ranking militia commander, militia officials said. Thursday’s strike comes amid mounting regional tensions fueled by the Israel-Hamas war and fears that it could spill over into surrounding countries. FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani tells us more.
#Iraq #Iran #MiddleEast

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