The fallout from the Donald Trump ending the Iran nuclear deal began swiftly.
Within an hour of Trump’s announcement on Iran reports of Israel air strikes against targets in Syria. Hardly a coincidence.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) May 8, 2018
Hours after Trump ditches Iran nuclear deal, Israel and Iran trade rocket attacks and missile strikes.
Israel claims it hit nearly all Iranian infrastructure in Syria. https://t.co/qvT1CLPbET pic.twitter.com/RgKJdS3ivJ— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) May 10, 2018
According to BBC:
“Israel says it has struck almost all of Iran’s military infrastructure inside Syria in its biggest assault since the start of the civil war there.”
“Israeli warplanes hit the rocket launcher that fired the barrage at its troops as well as dozens of other targets in Syria, including Iranian military and intelligence sites. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed in the strikes, but The Jerusalem Post reports 23 dead.
The retaliatory strikes came after the Israeli military says Iranian forces fired 20 rockets toward Israeli military posts near the Syrian border, but none hit their mark, according to NPR’s Daniel Estrin, who reports from Jerusalem.”
Bolton presents withdrawal from Iran deal as a big boost for Israel. But Trump, like Obama, has done nothing to prevent Iran from entrenching itself on Israel’s border. Hence the massive Israeli air strikes on Iranian bases in Syria. https://t.co/03ajOTNb5k pic.twitter.com/QP1mxQPVHr
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) May 10, 2018
An op-ed in the Israeli paper Haaretz says:
“Donald Trump Just Put Israel in Immediate Danger.
Netanyahu has convinced Trump that leaving the Iran deal protects Israel. But the U.S. walk out means a full-on Israel-Iran war in Syria now becomes far more likely.”
On the world stage, most leaders disagreed with wth Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran deal, and that includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Reuters reports:
“Merkel said that many of the global conflicts today were flaring on the doorstep of Europe.
‘And it is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us. Instead, Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands. That is the task for the future.’
[French President Emmanuel] Macron echoed the call to flesh out Europe’s common foreign and defence policy. ‘We made the choice to build peace in the Middle East. Other powers … haven’t kept their word,’ Macron said, without naming a country directly.”