Israel Hits Beirut, Imperiling "Peace" Agreement

 

Earlier today, Israeli forces hit an apartment building in southern Beirut, threatening to derail the talks between Iran and the U.S. who are purportedly nearing an agreement. Iran has made the issue of Israeli attacks on Lebanon one of its conditions for ending hostilities. The Associated Press reports on the latest attack:

"The Israeli military said it launched strikes on Beirut on Sunday targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, despite ongoing efforts to negotiate an end to the U.S.-Iran war. Smoke could be seen rising over the Lebanese capital.

The strikes threatened to hamper negotiations over a deal, which in its current form is a deep disappointment to Israel’s government. The last time Israel struck the Beirut suburbs a week ago, it set off the most serious escalation of fighting between Iran and Israel since the tenuous ceasefire took hold April 7.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were in response to Hezbollah attacks on the north of the country. Israel’s military said earlier in the day that Hezbollah had launched three projectiles into northern Israel, releasing footage where an audible boom was followed by a column of smoke rising above the tree line.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene in Beirut said the building struck was a five-story apartment building with shops on the bottom floor. The two lower floors were the most heavily damaged by the strikes. Residents of the southern suburbs, many of whom had returned to their homes after a period of relative calm in recent weeks, could be seen fleeing the area."

For its part, Iran has promised to retaliate. Israel, which launched the initial attack on Iran with the U.S. in February, has not agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah and withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon as part of any peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran. Israel is in the midst of an election campaign, where the extreme right is pushing for more attacks on Lebanon. From Aljazeera:

"Sami Nader from the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs says Israel’s strike on southern Beirut is 'very strategic testing' of the potential deal between the US and Iran.

'Israel is insisting on decoupling the front with Hezbollah from any negotiations between Iran and the US, while Iran is insisting on the opposite. They want this linkage and put it as a condition to go forward with the deal,' said Nader.

'So this event is quite significant and it has the potential to torpedo the deal between the US and Iran.'

He noted the 'domestic dimension' since Israel is in the throes of an election campaign." (our emphasis)

 Israel is unhappy with the fact that the Iranian regime was not "decapitated" in the first wave of strikes in February, which was its main goal, despite the messaging about an Iranian nuclear weapon. The ignorant and narcissistic Malignant Fascist, seeing visions of oil profits in a makeover of Iran's government, was played by Netanyahu. Now, whatever agreement is reached is seen as favoring Iran. 

BONUS: Iran is confirming that it won't be signing an agreement today, despite the MF's statements, given Israel's attacks on Beirut. The reckless MF is reduced to begging Netanyahu to stop attacking sites in Lebanon.