Middle East braces for wider conflict as Israel and Iran trade threats

Fears of an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East continue to grow as Israel keeps up its bombing campaign in Lebanon after killing the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran — Hezbollah’s backer — that it could also become a target, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Nasrallah’s killing “shall not go unavenged.”

“Those who strike at us, we will strike at them,” Netanyahu said late on Saturday. “There is nowhere in Iran or the Middle East beyond the reach of the long arm of Israel, and today you know how true that is.”

Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon-based Hezbollah since 1992, was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike on Friday.

In the same airstrikes, the Israeli army also killed Abbas Nilforoushan, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s deputy commander in Beirut. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday threatened retaliation, saying “this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime [Israel] will not go unanswered,” Reuters reported.

While Israel continued its airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that another Hezbollah leader, Nabil Qaouk, had been killed in a bombing on Saturday.

Western leaders have repeatedly called for a cease-fire and are now bracing for the worst.

“The region is seriously risking a full-blown war,” European Union chief diplomat Josep Borrell said Saturday as he called for an immediate cease-fire.

While welcoming the killing of Nasrallah as “a measure of justice,” United States President Joe Biden on Saturday said he asked the Pentagon “to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.” Biden told confidantes and allies in private last week that he did not believe that the Israeli leader wanted a halt to hostilities with Hezbollah.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Sunday afternoon flew to Lebanon to meet with local authorities and to reaffirm French support for the Lebanese people, including via humanitarian aid, his office said. French President Emmanuel Macron last week warned that “Lebanon should not become the new Gaza.”

At the same time, Israel is on “high alert” for possible retaliation after killing Nasrallah. On Sunday,  Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf reportedly said that militant groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah, “will not hesitate to go to any level” to fight against Israel.