Sputnik
The latest escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may further deteriorate if Iran decides to get involved and if the US continues to view Russia and China as enemies, Larry Johnson, an author and ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, told Sputnik.
The situation surrounding a new escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict shows no sign of getting resolved, with Tel Aviv already into the third week of its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, currently under a full blockade.
These developments are unfolding as the US signals its full-fledged support for Israel, while Arab nations and Iran have indicated their intent to lend a helping hand to the Palestinians.
"It's more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. And with each passing day, we're getting closer to setting the world on fire," Johnson maintained. According to him, the fact that “nobody's taking their foot off the accelerator” is "just sort of stunning."
Dwelling on the Biden administration’s policy in this regard and recalling (as an example) that the US “is illegally in Syria,” the ex-CIA analyst said that “on the one hand, we [the US] want to tell very much the need to follow an international rules-based order, and yet we flout those very rules.”
He warned that “the danger here now” is that major countries, including Russia, China, Brazil, India, Pakistan, and South Africa “are getting fed up” and that “the traditional sort of allies that the United States thought it could rely on in the Middle East are not there anymore”. They include Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, who are “even refusing to take calls from [US President Joe] Biden,” according to the former CIA analyst. “So when you add all of this together, it is, you know, if we're heading for a collision and then on top of it,” Johnson noted.
The ex-CIA analyst also warned of far-reaching implications from Iran possibly getting involved in the current Palestinian-Israeli armed conflict.
"Israel insists it's going to go on with a ground attack into Gaza. And I think if they do that, the minute they do that, you're going to see a Hezbollah [Lebanon-based militant group] operation from the north. And Israel is vowing retaliation, which even could include nuclear weapons. I think it's getting that dangerous because, you know, Israel really is in potential peril. I think its very existence will be on the line if Iran gets engaged, because Israel is not in a position to fight a two front war at all," Johnson pointed out.
When asked about the possibility of a war between the US and Iran in the offing, the ex-CIA analyst said he thinks “that's exactly where it's headed."
As for Israel, Johnson went on to say, the Jewish state is “choosing a course of action that's going to make it more difficult for it to survive intact as a nation”, something that he said remains “part of his concern.”
“We're seeing right now a level of unity between the Arab and Muslim world […], which is becoming very strident in their support of all of, you know, Hamas and the Palestinian people. So, I think we don't appreciate what we're up against,” Johnson noted.
Separately, he berated the US for failing to learn any lessons as he stressed that America “continues to believe that we [Washington] can use military force or the threat of military action to coerce others into changing their national policies, their behavior.”
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