Iran: Strikes ‘Contradict’ US, UK Policy

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed 

Iran on Sunday denounced the latest US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen saying they “contradict” their declared intention of avoiding a wider Middle East conflict.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus was killed in an Israeli missile strike that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital.

The Iranian news sites identified the dead man as Saeid Alidadi. They did not give his rank.

Asked about the strikes, Israel’s military said it hadn`t comment on reports in foreign media.

Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.

Since the October 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas from Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have started scaling back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to concerns about Tehran being sucked into a wider regional conflict. The Guards will instead rely more on allied Shia militia to preserve their sway there.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi told a crowd on Friday that his country would not start a war in the region but would “respond strongly” to anyone who tried to bully it.

Raisi’s comments came after days of speculation about how Washington might retaliate after three US soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.

The United States had approved plans for multi-day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities in those countries.