Iranian has been leading the international pro-Palestinian activism with the country's Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian making back-to-back regional visits and its President Sayyed Ibrahim Raeisi holding phone conversations with countries’ leaders and proposing to host an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Tehran.
As part of the diplomatic moves, after visits to the three allied countries of Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria and holding talks with their leaders and with heads of the resistance groups in Lebanon, Amir-Abdollahian visited Qatar to discuss a settlement to the crisis caused by ongoing Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Qatar hosts Hamas political office and the Palestinian resistance group's chief Ismail Haniyeh and some other if its leaders reside in Doha.
Meanwhile, what caught attention in the Iranian FM’s stances in Doha talks was the warnings about consequences of continuation of Israeli crimes in the besieged enclave.
In a press conference with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the top Iranian diplomat said that Tehran will not tolerate daily massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Israeli Regime and that the Islamic Republic calls for an immediate end to these war crimes and inhumane blockade and cutting off water, food, and medicine of Gazans.
“If the Zionist regime’s crimes against the Palestinian people and citizens continue, no one can guarantee that the situation in the region will remain the same,” he warned.
Continuing its programs in Doha, the Iranian diplomatic delegation held a several-hour meeting with Hamas officials in which the same firm positions in support of Palestine were reiterated.
“If the war crimes of the Zionist regime continue in Gaza, every possibility is likely in the region and the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its efforts to stop the war crimes of the Zionists,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
Earlier, during his meeting with Lebanese counterpart, Amir-Abdollahian had said that if the organized Israeli crimes do not stop immediately, any possibility is thinkable.
The warnings of the Iranian FM come while, according to IRNA, Khalil al-Hiya, a member of the Hamas political office, told reporters after meeting with the Iranian delegation that “in these three-hour negotiations, we discussed forming bigger axis against the Zionist regime and discussed how Iran and other countries can help using their abilities to stop the aggression of the Zionist regime.”
Given these positions, the question is that what are the most important options available to block implementation of the evil schemes of the Israeli regime and the US in Gaza in forthcoming days and weeks? And how can these warnings put the brakes on Israeli war machine?
Axis of Resistance’s deterrence
Undoubtedly, the warnings issued these days by the leaders of the Resistance camp and giving a deadline to the international community to stop the Israeli killing machine and prevent the expansion of the domain of the crisis are not only verbal solidarity with the Palestinians, and they draw a clear red line, telling the enemies that the Axis of Resistance has the necessary readiness and various and decisive tools to ensure that these red lines are not crossed.
One of the key options, which was one of the main messages of Iranian FM’s tour of the allied countries, is the possibility of forming a large-scale joint war command room to open new fronts against the Israeli especially in the north and northwest should Tel Aviv broaden the unequal war on Hamas and push for Gaza capture and relocation of Gazans.
Even in recent days, the heightened tensions on the northern borders with Lebanon and launching airstrikes on Damascus and Aleppo airports in Syria laid bare the seriousness of possibility of expansion of the conflict in the next few days or weeks. This is while Hezbollah and the Syrian government have not yet taken extensive retaliatory measures and are preparing for all scenarios in anticipation of the developments in the coming days. Another very likely issue is the readiness of the resistance groups in Iraq and even Yemen to play a role in this American-Israeli-fomented crisis, which can raise a wave of regional power in the face of the Israeli regime.
It should be noted that though Yemen is roughly distant from the occupied territories, the determining role of Ansarullah involvement in the confrontation between Axis of Resistance and Israeli regime is crucial. A major part of the Israeli foreign trade is through sea and Israeli access to high seas is vital to its economy. Meanwhile, the role of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait for saving this lifeline is central. After rise of Ansarullah as nascent power in the regional equations, Yemen’s control over Bab-el-Mandeb was completely realized and from this perspective, the Israelis are under Ansarullah’s guillotine. Also, it should not be forgotten that beside Hezbollah, Ansarullah now is one of the new missile powers of the Resistance camp and its missiles with a range of over 1,000 kilometers can strike Israeli regime.
Another option at the disposal of the Axis of Resistance certainly is dispatch of thousands of Muslim fighters from the region and across the world to fight the Israeli occupation should the Israelis decline to commit to the international rules of engagement that require not killing the civilians and displacing millions of Palestinians in Gaza. Now hearts of Muslims are with the occupied holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and Gaza and many are ready for deployment for jihad against the common enemy of all Muslims. As during the crisis in Syria, the Muslims showed they are ready to protect the Islamic sanctities with their blood and this time, too, the Resistance camp can get engaged with a historic arrangement.
Punitive Islamic-Arab tools: From weaponizing oil to boycotting Israeli products
In addition to the options available to the Resistance camp, the role of the Muslim and Arab countries in forcing the Western backers of Israeli regime to rein in the licentious Tel Aviv would be fruitful. In the 1973 war, the Arab countries cut off oil exports and created a major economic crisis for the Western countries supporting the Israeli regime, and the price of fuel increased more than fourfold. Although now such consensus looks far from available given the normalization of such countries as the UAE and Azerbaijan with the Israeli regime, certainly the cooperation among Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq as major oil producers in OPEC can effectively push the oil prices up to put pressure on the West.
It should not be forgotten that unfortunately Israeli business with Muslim countries reaches billions of dollars annually and these revenues fund the bombs that rain down on innocent Gazans. Only Turkey as one of the claimants of advocacy to the Palestinians had a trade volume of $7 billion with the Israeli regime in 2022. Or, Israeli exports to Malaysia as a Muslim country in 2022 were $74 million. Moreover, Israeli exports to Egypt and Jordan in 2022 were consecutively $122 and $127 million.
In these conditions, the maximum action Muslim countries can take in
support of Palestine is cutting off business ties with the Israelis.
Though such an action may bring some economic losses, it will definitely
have public support.
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