Former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and current vice president for economic affairs, Mohsen Rezaei, warned that “in the coming days, we’ll see additional fronts join the conflict in Gaza.”
Rezaei told Lebanese pro-Iran Al-Mayadeen TV regarding the Israeli aggression on Gaza, that the continued pressure on the Palestinian people will expand support for Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Operation ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ against Israel.
He said that in the coming days “we will witness the entry of other fronts into the war. Hamas is not in Gaza alone. It is present in the West Bank and outside Palestine, along with the resistance forces in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.”
Rezaei claimed that Israeli forces infiltrating into the deep of Gaza are facing “hidden resistance” and the more they infiltrate, the more they will “sink into the quagmire and will not be able to achieve victory.”
He stated that this war will determine the fates of Israel and the “resistance axis” which will play a greater role in the future.
However, the Iranian spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani claimed that the resistance groups in the region do not take orders from Iran. “The resistance groups represent their respective nations… They make decisions and act by themselves,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran refers to the “resistance axis” to refer to an alliance of non-state actors in the Middle East that oppose Western influence, namely the US and Israel. This axis includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.
Hezbollah, a long-time ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, has especially been escalating its rhetoric against Israel since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7. The Lebanese militia has also been launching cross-border attacks against Israeli targets.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hezbollah had fired 1,000 munitions at Israel since October 7 when the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza, and warned that Tehran was increasing its attacks against Israel.
The expansion of the Israel-Hamas war has been a pressing concern for the US which sent the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea “in order to deter any actor seeking to escalate the situation or widen this war.” Efforts to increase US posture continue, including the rapid movement into theater of US Air Force F-15s, F-16s and A-10s to augment existing fighter squadrons in the region.
Additionally, the US sent the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to the Eastern Mediterranean. The action came as part of US efforts to “deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack on Israel.”
Source » alarabiya