Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on October 2, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
A year ago, almost to the day, we wrote in these same columns that Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei were faced with the most difficult and crucial choice of their lives: to risk a direct conflict with Israel, and possibly with the United States, or not. They chose a multi-front war of low intensity to force Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, under the threat of eventually triggering a regional war that the Biden administration wanted to avoid at all costs.This gamble nearly worked. Last June, when Joe Biden presented his peace plan for Gaza and invited Israel to comply, Iran could consider that it was on the verge of achieving a strategic victory. Hamas was not eliminated in the Palestinian enclave, Hezbollah was lying low, the Houthis were puffing out their chests, and Iran had attacked Israel for the first time in its history...
A year ago, almost to the day, we wrote in these same columns that Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei were faced with the most difficult and crucial choice of their lives: to risk a direct conflict with Israel, and possibly with the United States, or not. They chose a multi-front war of low intensity to force Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, under the threat of eventually triggering a regional war that the Biden administration wanted to avoid at all costs.This gamble nearly worked. Last June, when Joe Biden presented his peace plan for Gaza and invited Israel to comply, Iran could consider that it was on the verge of achieving a strategic victory. Hamas was not eliminated in the Palestinian enclave, Hezbollah was lying low, the Houthis were puffing out their chests, and Iran had attacked Israel for the first time in its history...