On Saturday, according to Kurdish Security Forces in Northern Iraq, drone strikes had targeted Erbil airport, a site which hosts US forces. Drone attacks of this nature earlier this year sparked two separate US attacks on the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU) in both Iraq and Syria. Although no evidence has been brought to bear as to who was behind the various drone strikes on US forces, US media and the Biden administration have regularly blamed the Iranian-backed PMU. 

 

The PMU, which is an active part of Iraq’s official security apparatus, came under attack for the third time this year, on Tuesday, from precision airstrikes near Abu Kamal, located at the Syria-Iraq border. Despite Sabareen News, a media agency closely associated with the PMU, originally speculating about US involvement in the attack, the US military quickly denied it. This then led to further allegations against Israel, that they had committed the strikes. If the Israeli air force did commit the strikes, then they most likely could have done so from SDF-occupied North Eastern Syria or through using Jordanian airspace. 

 

Successive Israeli administrations have now sought to permanently kill the Obama-era Iran Nuclear Deal, or JCPOA, and have done so whilst fear-mongering over Iran’s alleged strides towards a nuclear weapon.  

 

Earlier this year, Israel’s Military Chief, Aviv Kochavi, stressed that Iran could acquire nuclear weapons capabilities within “months, maybe even weeks,” a predictably false speculation, much like former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s similar predictions, which date back to 1995.

 

Late last month US President Joe Biden stated, during a meeting with Israeli Premier Naftali Bennet, that if diplomatic efforts fail to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, then the US was prepared to turn to “other options.” Bennet just last Friday issued an urgent call to confront Iran’s uranium enrichment surge.