Iran/Israel: Ambassadors to UN show no signs of backing down • FRANCE 24 English

Iran/Israel: Ambassadors to UN show no signs of backing down • FRANCE 24 English

well the UN nuclear chief Raphael Grossi said that the above ground section of the Netan’s facility was destroyed He made that remark at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Gross said the main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit but the loss of the power could have damaged the infrastructure The ambassadors of Iran and Israel also speaking to the council neither appearing to back down Here’s a brief clip of what each had to say We strongly and unequivocally condemn the barbaric and criminal attack A series of targeted assassination were against senior military officials nuclear scientists and innocent civilians So far 78 people including senior military officials have been martyed and over 320 other injured the overwhelming the overwhelming majority of them civilians including women and children Iran will respond decisively and proportionately to these act of aggression at a time in a place and by means of its choosing As we speak hundred of ballistic missiles are targeting civilian population in Israel Just imagine if Iran had a nuclear warhead today What would have happened we are determined to finish the job and to make sure that Iran will not have the ability to threaten Israel That is our promise We will fulfill it Well joining us from Colchester in the United Kingdom is Natasha Lindstad deputy dean and professor at the University of Essics Hello to you professor Thank you for speaking to Paris Direct Um there’s a fine line between deterrence and escalation isn’t there do you have confidence that either Israel or Iran will be able to adhere to it no I think actually in this case Israel under Netanyahu is seizing this moment as he sees it as sort of a once in a generation type of moment that Israel could really bring Iran to its knees if it uh can continue these attacks and disable uh is uh Iran’s air defense uh and its missile capabilities and it’s already done a lot of damage to that Uh we see that it’s crippled its arsenal of ballistic missiles Iran was really caught off guard Um there’s been damage as the report already mentioned to its um nuclear enrichment facility the largest one that it has in Natans Uh so I think Israel is trying to take advantage of this particular moment when Iran is already weak its economy is weak it’s lost uh you know control over Syria uh Hezbollah has become severely weakened after its war with with Israel its conflict with Israel So from Israel’s standpoint it’s trying to take uh take this moment to to get the upper hand with Iran And I think it’s actually hoping to go as far as to push for regime change In regime change what assurances does Israel’s prime minister have Bin Netanyahu that whatever entity would fill the power vacuum in Iran would be less antagonistic towards Israel i mean there’s there’s no guarantee that whatever comes next will be any better I mean Iran has been mostly ruled by authoritarian regimes you know prior to the Ayatollah taking over of course you had the sha who was also authoritarian but more pro- western Uh but there’s there’s no guarantees about what is going to come in its place It could be something that is even more extreme From Israel’s standpoint this current regime is incredibly anti-Israel It poses a threat to Israel’s existence Uh and it wants to push for something further I mean it could do this by attacking its water and energy plant facilities for example If it were to do that this could lead to destabilizing protests in Iran which is already a regime that for many in Iran is not considered to be particularly legitimate But again uh there are forces within Iran that could take power and uh if let’s just say there is some sort of regime change and it it might not result in anything that is particularly better from Israel’s standpoint Yeah And I also wondering about this Um you know Iran had said when we look at the concerns here about a a broader conflict Iran warned that if the US the UK or France um use their bases or ships in the region uh they could be targeted if they uh assist Israel in any of this Um how much of this is fear-mongering how much of this is saber rattling and how much of it do you take for a credible warning so it it is a possibility Of course Iran has taken risks in the past I think for the most part the the regime under Kamani is is in a rock and a hard place They’re in a very difficult situation because they don’t want to escalate things further so that it gets to the point that there is actually regime change as I mentioned I mean that’s their biggest uh focus is on their own survival And so they are trying to deter Western powers particularly the US from from getting involved Um but at the same time you know Iran’s military capacity has been severely damaged uh with all of the ballistic missiles that have been targeted They were supposed to send they were trying to send about a thousand ballistic missiles over to Israel and it ended up being around a hundred So they don’t really even have the capacity to pose a threat the same type of threat that they had in the past And and domestically for Israel that government very unpopular as well A lot of people would like to see uh that government out of power Um how much pressure is on Netanyah Yahoo amid the war in Gaza and also this is a a um a a leader that has at the time uh previously uh used crises or conflicts to try and stay in power Certainly for the Israeli public they are weary and exhausted by the conflicts and and I think if you look at the polling it’s sort of a mixed picture Uh Netanyahu gained more support in its war on on Lebanon I’m sorry on Hezbollah Um that received a majority of public support but right now a majority of the Israeli public main focus is to get the hostages back at any any way possible U and so they may be concerned of this escalation taking place in Iran How is that going to undermine undermine the process of getting these hostages back uh so I think it’s a mixed picture there Mixed picture there But one of the things that we do know is that with this right-wing government that Netanyahu leads he’s been pushed even further uh into more hawkish aggressive direction uh and he seems to be moving in the way to to please this side of his cabinet But do you think also maybe uh mindful of Washington i mean Iran accusing US of being complicit in these attacks The US said they were not complicit they were aware of them beforehand but that they were not complicit Do you think Netanyahu would have acted without Washington’s consent yes I do I I think that he has reached the point where he feels like he needs to act unilaterally Um that there won’t be any kind of repercussions even if if he does Uh we’ve seen both the US and Israel sort of do their own thing from time to time because Netanyahu uh did not want Trump to um to remove the sanctions on Syria and and he did it anyways Uh during Trump’s most recent visit to the Middle East He did not vis visit Israel Israel close of course is still a very close ally to the US Trump and Netanyahu are still close Um but I feel that under Netanyahu he he wants to do what he needs to do Remember Israel never let the US know about its attack on Hassan Nzraalla the former leader of course of of Hezbollah who was killed Uh so Israel the US doesn’t have as much leverage on Israel uh unless it wants to really decide to to change the financial situation to stop the over 3 billion in military aid that it’s giving it uh and I don’t see that happening anytime soon with uh the US government somewhat divided on this issue And so for Netanyahu he feels like he can do what he wants to do and he’s not going to face too much uh backlash either from the US or even from some Western European uh US allies as well Yeah So notably Britain France and Germany were all calling for restraint here Does that mean there’s no leverage not really I don’t think there is much leverage I I don’t see them being able to control what Israel wants to do As I mentioned earlier they see this as a moment that they’ve got to take advantage of that that Iran is so incredibly weak at this moment that if they don’t strike now and really pummel and attack Iran in this moment then when is the next moment going to be because as an earlier report had mentioned they can kind of quickly get back uh their you know production capabilities keep pursuing their nuclear program their enrichment program They’ve accelerated this uh and and they pose a danger from Israel’s standpoint uh if this continues to accelerate So the timing of this is really interesting The US was in the midst of negotiations with Iran about this uh the nuclear program and trying to pursue some kind of nuclear deal and Israel came in as the spoiler The US was trying to delay what Israel wanted to do with this attack and they were not able to deter uh Israel and Netanyahu in this instance Instead Israel came in with these strikes using both covert operations um and and you know traditional conventional weapons and so so for them they they see this as a really key opportunity here Professor thank you so much for your time Professor Natasha Lindstat speaking to us there Thank you Thanks for having

Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks on Israel early Saturday following Israel’s massive strikes on Friday targeting its nuclear strikes. Our guest Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor at the University of Essex and expert on authoritarian regimes, gives us her take.
#Iran #Israel #UN

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