Rising tensions in the Gulf-MENA region and the need for de-escalation: an online debate, 17 April
In response to rising tensions between Israel and Iran and a real risk of full-scale regional conflict, Forward Thinking convened an online meeting on Wednesday 17 April following Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel on 13 April in retaliation for the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, on 1 April. The purpose of the meeting was to develop understanding of the underlying reasons for these actions, and to identify practical steps towards de-escalation.
The discussion was led by two Iranian academics from the Institute for Political and International Studies in Tehran, the main think tank of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Senior foreign ministry officials, parliamentarians, academics, and journalists from Belgium, France, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, the Order of Malta, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, the UN, and the US participated.
From the Iranian perspective, the retaliation against Israel on 13 April was one of self-defence, and has to be understood in the context of not only the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April, but also prior Israeli incursions claimed to have been made against Iranian assets and personnel. As an act of self-defence, it was said that the Iranian attack was not intended to be an escalatory step and targeted only military and intelligence bases that were identified as sources of strikes against Iran. The attack, it was said, intended to show that Iran would not tolerate further incursions and has the capacity and willingness to attack more severely, if Israel retaliates.
Some participants, however, felt that the Iranian response had been disproportionate and that it had delivered a strategic ‘win’ for Israel by side-lining growing concerns from the international community regarding the Israel Defence Force’s operations in Gaza.
Israel’s international allies, in Europe and the US, it was felt from the Iranian perspective, have not sufficiently condemned Israel’s actions in the region, and it was claimed that the international rules-based order is currently based on rules set by the US, not the UN. There is a need, it was said, for a ceasefire in Gaza that secures peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis, as this would end the root cause of instability in the wider Gulf-MENA region.
Responding to concerns raised about Iranian ‘proxies’, it was said that groups like the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon act largely independent of Iran. As ‘resistance groups’, it was claimed that by removing the conflicts underpinning their existence and by securing an end to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the groups would lose their raison d’être.