After the explosions in Kerman, Iran, which caused the death of dozens of people and injured more than a hundred, no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Tehran immediately pointed the finger at the United States and Israel, but the list of enemies of the Iranian regime is long, and the pattern of the attack, according to Washington, indicates that the hand is in the hands of terrorist groups that have long operated in Iran. . Both reconstructions have supporting evidence. Let’s see which ones.
Great Satan…
Let’s start with Tehran’s version: for Iran, Israel’s hand was behind the attack, with US support; “Little” and “Great Satan” respectively, as defined by the Iranian regime. Tehran did not produce any evidence to support this thesis, but the day and place of the explosions led the Iranian people to easily attribute the massacre to Washington.
The bombs actually hit a crowd gathered in Baghdad in 2020 to commemorate the grave of commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad on the orders of Donald Trump, then-White House resident Donald Trump, who blew up the deal. Tehran on nuclear energy. Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
…and Little Devil
So why did Washington take such a sensational action at a time when President Joe Biden is stepping up diplomatic efforts to prevent escalation of tensions in the Middle East and preventing Israel’s war against Hamas from spreading to Iran and its allies in the region? This could only be to send a signal to Tehran amid tensions in the Red Sea, where Houthi rebels backed by the Iranian regime have attacked Western ships and put a sliver of international trade at risk. In the days before the attack in Kerman, Iran announced that it would send one of its military frigates to the Red Sea, and the USA attacked Houthi ships with raids.
Despite this, it seems difficult even for Tehran that Washington would go so far as to cause dozens of civilians to die at Soleimani’s grave. Rather, from the Iranian regime’s perspective, the attack may be an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to coerce his Western allies and continue to “destroy” enemies in Gaza and the rest of the region, especially Israel. Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” organizations, from Hamas to Hezbollah.
Extended conflict
The declared goal of Netanyahu and his government’s far-right parties is not to stop the post-October 7 offensive in Gaza on its own, but to hit Hamas and its supporters wherever they are found. This week, Turkey arrested 33 people suspected of being Mossad agents who took action to kill Hamas members who had taken refuge in the country. A few hours later, Israel killed Saleh al-Arouri, the number two man of Hamas in Lebanon, who was protected by Hezbollah (another organization financed by Iran). We should not forget the killing of Revolutionary Guards General Razi Mousavi, who is considered among the names closest to Soleimani, in Syria.
After Mousavi’s assassination, Tehran declared revenge; This was something Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeated after the Kerman massacre. According to many analysts, both the Iranian regime and Netanyahu have an interest in increasing tensions in the region, not in provoking a direct conflict between their militaries. The Israeli prime minister, who is in a deep crisis of consensus and at odds with a significant part of the Israeli military, may be able to overcome these challenges in the face of a protracted state of war that spreads to regional factions financed by Iran. Tehran, for its part, has to deal with internal protests. Moreover, the conflict in Gaza has already disrupted a security agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia that Iran does not like.
Here is ISIS again
There seems to be an almost parallel rapprochement between Netanyahu and the Iranian regime when it comes to keeping the heat high in the Middle East. And the Kerman massacre may be functional for the convergence of these interests, regardless of who the real perpetrator is. Western experts point out that the clues point to ISIS or radical groups of the Sunni Muslim opposition. ISIS-K, the terrorist organization’s branch in Afghanistan, carried out two attacks in Iran in 2023. The methods used in both cases are very similar to what happened in Kerman. And in both cases, Tehran was quick to point the finger at ISIS (and also the Taliban).
Some experts, such as Meir Livak, a professor at Tel Aviv University, believe that the perpetrators of the attack may have been “Salafi-jihadist elements” from “Baloch or Kurdish or similar minorities inspired by the Islamic State ideology.” At the time of this writing, there was no official communication from ISIS, although some Iranian media mentioned a possible claim by the Islamic State.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
