The Iranian government has belittled the scale and effectiveness of the Israeli attack on its military sites, but hardliners in the parliament insisted the strikes breached Iranian red lines and required a swift response, preferably at a time when Israel is already enmeshed in Lebanon and Gaza.

The internal Iranian debate on how to respond to the long-awaited Israeli attack turns on whether to treat Israel’s breach of Iranian national sovereignty as too grave to be ignored, or instead to heed the advice coming from the region and from the US to acknowledge the relatively limited nature of the attack and to step back from the brink by not launching reprisals.

In making its decision, the Iranian political elite will have to weigh conflicting political, diplomatic and military pressures. But the initial tone from the government was one of patriotic pride at the performance of the air defences, rather than calls for immediate retribution. Some even claimed that the air defences proved better than Israel’s Iron Dome.

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  • Sundial@lemm.eeEnglish
    61·
    28 days ago

    Unless there’s boots on the ground in Israel, then US won’t get involved. At most they’ll just support Israel and shield them. This war is way too unpopular in America as it is right now.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
      4·
      28 days ago

      Not enough unpopular to make differences, but it’s definitely a hot topic of discussion, or not talking about, for fear of being labeled. Meanwhile we’re still doing what we’ve always done. It’s almost like it goes much deeper than who is the President…

      • Sundial@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        28 days ago

        It is incredibly unpopular. Over 2/3rds of Americans support enforcing a ceasefire. That number will only go up if American troops start coming under fire. The only reason this isn’t changing much is because a significant majority of Americans are voting Harris just because of how scared they are of Trump. If this race were between two genuine candidates and not what it is now, Harris would have lost a lot more votes.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
          32·
          28 days ago

          If any of the two candidates was a real electable candidate (like not even anything amazing, just 2020 Biden level of electable) they’d win by a land slide. Instead y’all have this clown show.