Occupied Jerusalem: The Israeli parliament has approved a law empowering the country’s prime minister and defense minister to declare war without full Cabinet approval in “extreme circumstances.”
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a presentation showcasing intelligence on Iran’s nuclear programme on live television, his coalition quietly pushed through a bill on Monday expanding his authority to order military operations.
The measure was passed amid heightened tensions with Iran over its involvement in Syria.
It was approved less than a day after warplanes, believed to be Israeli, carried out an air strike Syrian military facility, killing 26 pro-government fighters, most of them Iranians.
Israel is believed to have been responsible for several strikes on Iranian positions in Syria in recent months. Israeli officials typically neither confirm nor deny such reports.
The move comes amid a growing risk that a fresh war is about to break out in Syria, pitting Israel against Iran.
Iran’s forces are entrenching there, after joining the fight to prop up President Bashar Al Assad.
Israel, perceiving a direct threat on its border, is subjecting them to an escalating barrage of air strikes.
Nobody expects those strikes to go unanswered.
The path to escalation is clear, and the rhetoric is apocalyptic.
“We will demolish every site where we see an Iranian attempt to position itself,’’ Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told the London-based Saudi newspaper Elaph, adding that the Iranian regime is “living its final days.’’
In Tehran, Hussain Salami, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said that “100,000 missiles are ready to fly’’ in Israel’s direction, and warned they could bring about its “annihilation and collapse.’’
Iran and Israel have been exchanging threats for decades.
What’s different now is that Syria’s civil war, which sucked in both countries, provides a potential battlespace - one that’s much closer to Israel than Iran.
Israeli officials say there are 80,000 fighters in Syria who take orders from Iran.
As they help Al Assad recapture territory, militiamen from Hezbollah have deployed within a few kilometres of the Occupied Golan Heights on Israel’s border.
Iran has vowed to avenge its citizens killed by the Israeli air strikes, and it has plenty of options for doing so.
“The Iranians in Syria have graduated from helping Assad to “building their strategic presence against Israel,” said Paul Salem, senior vice president at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“It appears that neither the Russians nor the Al Assad regime are in control or can limit these things,” he said.
“The situation is highly unstable and highly unmanaged.”
