Israel May Have Made ‘Deeply Destabilizing Move’ for Iran and Whole Region by Striking Back

On Thursday’s MSNBC broadcast of “The Eleventh Hour,” NBC News foreign correspondent Matt Bradley said the explosion in Iran was a “deeply and deeply destabilizing attack by the Israelis, and also not just for the Iranians but for the entire region.” “There is a possibility that this will be a move that will lead to further change.” Including Syria.

“I think the big question for a lot of people here is whether this all extends beyond Iran’s borders,” Bradley said at the outset. “This is because it has spread beyond the country’s borders.” Borders, especially here in Lebanon, where Lebanon controls a lot of politics and a lot of military power is controlled by Hezbollah, which is Iran’s main ally against Israel, and they’re actually far south of where I live. live in the area of I’m on the coast, near the Israeli border. And over the past six months, since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has been at a near-simmering boil, though not really at a low level. . Now, that is Hezbollah, one of Iran’s proxy organizations. Hamas is another, and now we’re talking about the Houthis in Yemen, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and some forces in Syria with Iranian support as well. Bashar al-Assad’s regime is supported by Iranians. So we’re not just talking about Iran, we’re talking about all the other groups that have ties to Iran, extremist groups, and in some cases states, that are really legitimate targets as far as Israel is concerned. . Now, many of these groups may have thought they might have been beaten by today. Because, like Courtney said, we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop for the better part of last week. Saturday night saw the Iranians fire a volley of missiles at Israel. And this seems like it could be either the beginning or the end of some sort of Israeli retaliation. ”

He added: “But the question will be whether proxies like Hezbollah will be involved. If that happens, in each case we will be on the precipice of a war that will truly engulf the entire region. , there could be a major conflagration involving not only Iran vs. Israel, but also countries like Lebanon, which has suffered from a major financial crisis over the past five years, and countries like Yemen and Syria. It also has severe political instability and has suffered a lot of violence in the past few years. No country, especially Lebanon, is ready for another war. And that is what we are facing now. So this could be a very destabilizing move by the Israelis, and also not just for the Iranians but for the entire region, and it could even attract the United States. .”