From a historical point of view, the deadly drone attack that resulted in the death of the three American soldiers in Jordan did not necessarily reflect an escalation in the conduct between Iran and the United States, although it did reflect the expansion of the attacks carried out by pro-Iranian Iraqi militias against the United States in recent months in Iraq and Syria.
The Shin Bet investigation revealed: the training that the Islamic Jihad operatives underwent at an Iranian military training base // Shin Bet Communication
In fact, since the 1980s, Iran has been promoting a terrorist campaign against the US as a central anchor in its ambition to achieve regional hegemony and push the US away.
Already in 1983, Iran, through Hezbollah, promoted a deadly incendiary attack against the bases of the multinational force in Beirut, in which 241 American soldiers and 58 French soldiers were killed.
Her senior role in the attack was revealed by the American National Security Agency (NSA) which intercepted a transmission from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence to the Iranian ambassador in Damascus in which the order was passed to advance the attack carried out by Hezbollah and with the assistance of Revolutionary Guards forces.
Since Iran included the theory of activating the relays.
In a gradual process spanning decades, she established and nurtured an impressive array of militias and Shiite and Sunni terrorist organizations in the Middle East, which she financed, trained and armed.
This is how it managed to fight the USA (as well as its main rivals in the region - Israel and Saudi Arabia) and was not attacked by it. In the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) Iran used this network of emissaries to fight Saddam Hussein, and to punish Saudi Arabia and the USA through terrorist attacks for their support in Iraq.
In the 1990s, the network of emissaries expanded even to al-Qaeda, which received significant aid from Tehran for the infernal attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (August 7, 1998) in which 224 civilians were killed and about 4,000 were injured.
Shia militias in Iraq, photo: AP.
After the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Iranian terrorist sponsorship also included the Taliban (albeit to a lesser extent), which received funding, training, and military personnel to fight the Americans. In the Iraq War (2003-2011), Iran operated a terrorist organization that included four Shia militias and two militias This is in order to prevent the US from establishing a forward base from which to operate militarily against Tehran.
According to the Pentagon's assessment from 2019, due to the activation of its proxies, Iran was found responsible for the killing of 608 American soldiers and contractors in the Iraq War.
A decade later, during the civil war in Syria, Iran expanded its network of emissaries, and succeeded in preventing the ouster of Assad by sending a variety of Iraqi Shia militias, Afghan militias, Pakistani militias, and the Lebanese Hezbollah to Syria.
American soldiers in Afghanistan, photo: AP
The statements in recent months from Tehran, as well as from senior Shiite militias in Iraq, according to which the attacks against the Americans in Iraq and Syria will stop if the US instructs Israel to stop the war in Gaza, leave no room for doubt about Iran's standing behind these attacks. These are carried out by the Islamic resistance in Iraq, which also accepted responsibility for the attack in Jordan. This is an organizational framework that includes several pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, chief among them is Hezbollah, the spearhead of the Iranian formation in Iraq.
In various briefings to the American media since that attack, the Biden administration has signaled its intention not to enter into a conflict with Iran.
Indeed, immediately after the attack, senior Iranian officials rushed to emphasize that Tehran is not related to it, although it welcomes it.
Differentiating Iran from attacks by its affiliates is an essential part of the theory of the activation of affiliates.
"We will hold all those responsible accountable at the time and in the manner we choose."
Biden, photo: AP
At least for the time being, it does not appear that the area is about to escalate.
Many signs indicate that the USA under the Biden administration will not deviate from its policy, and will not strike Iran despite its senior part in the attack in which American soldiers were killed again.
The author is a fellow at the Meshgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy
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