If Israel loses patience and decides to carry out an attack against Iran, the consequences could be catastrophic, ranging from Iran’s possible withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a wider regional and even global confrontation.
Several Israeli and Western news outlets suggest that political and military leaders in Tel Aviv are weighing a response to Iran’s Sunday drones and missiles attack that targeted inside Israel. Iran’s Sunday attack on Israel was unprecedented as it was the first time that Tehran launched a direct strike against its years-long enemy.
But the nature of Iran’s attack was retaliatory and was carried out in response to an earlier attack that Israel conducted on Iran’s consulate building in Syria last week, killing a number of top members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
While Iran’s attack on Israel was a controlled and limited response, as Iranian officials noted, a response from Israel in the form of a direct attack onIranian targets inside the country could lead to catastrophic results that can ultimately hurt Israel and the United States more than Iran.
Israel’s response could lead to Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT!
A direct attack on Iran by Israel can convince decision makers in Tehran to withdraw completely from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel possesses nuclear weapons and Iran is now a threshold country, meaning that it is so advanced in the field of nuclear energy and has so much highly-enriched uranium that can produce nuclear weapons within a matter of a few weeks.
After all, many political, scientific, and military elites inside Iran already believe that the Islamic Republic should have pulled itself out of the NPT many years ago as they consider the treaty to be written in favor of the nuclear-haves only.
Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT can therefore lead to fears of a nuclear war in the already chaotic Middle East region.
Will Israel spark a new world war?
Considering the current atmosphere that dominates the international relations, especially after Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, even if Iran won’t make such a decision and remains in the NPT, an Israeli attack on Iran could still lead to a wider regional confrontation that can drag many countries in and out of the Middle east into war, a big war maybe even worse than WWII.
All these horrific scenarios can be prevented if decision makers in Israel can come to their senses and avoid a hasty yet costly response to Iran’s Sunday strike. Otherwise, it is Israel that should bear the responsibility for the later chaos, it is Israel that should be blamed for a possible third world war.
