After the destruction of its consulate in Damascus, on April 1, Iran will retaliate against Israel. What will be the nature of Iranian retaliation? Iran does not want a direct confrontation against the Hebrew state for the moment (see my intervention for I24News). However, we must be aware about the ultimate goal of the Islamic Republic in this confrontation: the destruction of Israel, as I explain in “Lessons from the Syrian Crisis”
“The anti-Israeli discourse is shared by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause, as evidenced by the Palestinian scarf that he wears at all times. In addition, Ali Khamenei is a great admirer of the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, the Sunni ideologue of jihadism, whose works he translated into Persian, such as Our Struggle Against the Jews. Ali Khamenei’s statements on Israel are unambiguous: “a malignant cancerous tumor that must be removed and eradicated.” He justifies his remarks by the fact that the Hebrew State would be both the representative of imperialism and the enemy of Islam. It is therefore the duty of Iran to fight against it until its destruction. This involves building a territorial axis to the west in order to support anti-Israeli forces (Hamas, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime) and to participate directly in the fight. Thanks to Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, and the reconquest of the province of Daraa, during the spring of 2018, the Islamic Republic now has the monopoly on confrontation with Israel. He supports Hamas in Gaza and reiterates his solidarity with the Palestinians at every opportunity. » (Fabrice Balanche, Lessons from the Syrian crisis, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2024, p. 214)
