The Middle East is once again on the verge of embrace (Find our Live on the situation in the region here). Iran fired several missiles against Israel on Sunday, which said it had intercepted them, breaking a ceasefire already very weakened after 100 days of war in the Middle East.
Israel then threatened to respond to these shots presented by Tehran as retaliation for Israeli bombings against Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the suburbs of Beirut. And this threat materialized during the night from Sunday to Monday. The Israeli army announced that it had carried out airstrikes against “military targets” in western and central Iran.
Clashes continue in Lebanon
Donald Trump, however, is trying to calm things down. The President of the United States had in fact explained – before Israel’s strikes on Iran – that he wanted to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate so as not to endanger any signing of a final agreement with Tehran, according to the media Axios. Without success therefore.
The situation is thus far from moving towards peace in the region. Hostilities continue on the other front of the conflict, in Lebanon, from where projectiles were fired towards Israel on Sunday, despite a ceasefire theoretically in force, provoking an Israeli response which struck the south of Beirut on Sunday, leaving two dead and 20 injured. While the United States strives to dissociate the two fronts, for Iran, they are in fact inseparable.
Our file on the War in the Middle East
Sunday’s strikes therefore complicate the negotiations which are slipping between Washington and Tehran. This is the first time that Iran has fired missiles against Israel since the April 8 ceasefire. Israel announced the closure of all schools in the country, while Iraq announced on Sunday evening the temporary closure of its airspace, as did Syria partially. Iran also closed its airspace in the western part of the country on Sunday evening until further notice. Flights at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, one of the capital’s two main airports, have been suspended.
