Azernews.Az

Qabil Ashirov

Read more

Iran fired missiles at the north of Iraq and Syria, which caused the death of five people including two children, on Monday night.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced the attack and called it as “aggression against the sovereignty of Iraq and the security of the Iraqi people and harming good-neighbourly relations and the security of the region”.

The Ministry noted that the Iraqi government will take all legal measures against these actions.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry added that Iranian charge d`affaires in Baghdad was summoned to the Ministry to protest against the attacks and also Iraqi ambassador to Iran was summoned for discussion.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the attacks. IRGC claimed that the targets in Iraq were the US military base and MOSSAD headquarters. As for the targets in Syria, according to the data of IRGC they were bases of ISIS.

Iranian officials noted that the attacks were retaliation for Israeli attacks on IRGC leaders in Damascus, the capital of Syria in which senior IRGC commander had been killed.

“This headquarters was responsible for planning and running espionage operations and terrorist activities in the region, mainly our beloved country,” Iranian officials said.

Kurdish politician called the Iranian action as an “unjustified attack on a civilian home.”

The White House called the missile attacks as “a reckless and imprecise set of strikes”. Besides, despite Iranian claims, US officials noted that no US bases in Iraq was affected by the missile strikes and there were no American casualities.

Given that the region holds one of the globally biggest fossil fuel reserves, any military confrontation in the region causes concern. Besides, naming the USA in the conflicts poses questions if America can conduct any operations against Iran.

Speaking to Azernews on the issue, Dr. Imran Khalid, a Pakistani pundit, noted that the situation in the region will deteriorate and aggravate and it will certainly impact oil prices. The situation is not likely to cool down in the coming days because in the whole of the Middle East, we will see a lot of disruption, be it in Gaza, be it in Lebonan, be it in Syria and now in Iraq.

“So, there is complete unrest. The only person who is likely to aggravate the situation for his own benefit is most probable is the US president Joe Biden. Because his popularity is going very low in those days, and the presidential campaign is on in America and Trump is leading by margins. He is much ahead on the surveys. Biden is not likely to win. Biden is seeking some narratives to attract the American voters and the best part could be to show some kind of military success in the region. Small scale, a surgical strike can not be ruled out and it will be enough to impact oil prices. As a matter of course, it will affect all countries engaging in fossil-fuels,” Imran Khalid said.

He added that surely, Iran will be definitely affected by the whole scenario. All the people in Iran and all its neighbors will be affected as well. The pundit added that there is a huge Azerbaijani population in Iran, and definitely, the situation is not going too well in any military confrontations for them. Because, there will be a big pressure on Iran and of course, its population will feel the same pressure. Imran Khalid added that needless to say, this pressure will come to its neighbors, as well.

---

Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz