there's been a fear the conflict could
spread and that's
happening across the Middle East we're
seeing air strikes bombings
assassinations and Border raids the most
high-profile escalation involves houthi
rebels in Yemen attacking shipping in
the Red Sea they say in solidarity with
Palestinians in response the US and the
UK have attacked houy positions most
recently with us strikes on Wednesday
night and a day before America began
attacking the houth
the US Secretary of State said this we
were focused uh on making sure that the
conflict uh ongoing now in Gaza doesn't
spread uh to other places that's been
our Focus since uh since October 7th uh
and it remains our Focus today but as
America's own actions show stopping the
spread is proving difficult as the New
York Times puts it the regional war no
one wanted is here and it asks how wide
will it get because already along with
the Israel Gaza War and the exchanges in
the Red Sea and Yemen there have been
other incidents in Iran Syria Iraq and
Lebanon and all of these different
escalations connect both to the Israel
Gaza war and to longer term tensions too
what you have here really are two sets
of conflicts overlapping one Israel the
Hamas and the ramifications of that but
of course behind that the much longer
running and wider conflict between a
low-level conflict if you like between
Iran and its various allies in the
region and Western interests more
generally and the United States in
particular we're seeing this overlap
play out across the region following
October the 7th there's been an increase
in Border clashes between the Israeli
military and the Hezbollah group in
Lebanon Hezbollah is backed by Iran as
is Hamas then in early January there was
an assassination in Lebanon of a senior
Hamas leader it's assumed Israel
was responsible the same is true of the
assassination of a senior Iranian
commander in Syria in December Syria is
an ally of Iran Israel is trying to
disrupt Iran's Regional Network located
in these places what Iran calls its axis
of resistance Iran uses its allies
non-state actors allies in order to show
solidarity with isra with the
Palestinians in order to increase the
cost of war in Gaza for Israel and the
United States and also to divert some of
Israel's military assets from Gaza to
the northern front with Lebanon last
November Iran's foreign minister said
Iran does not want the war to spread but
warned a wider conflict could prove
inevitable and recently Iran has shown
it is willing to take military action
two weeks ago in an Iranian city called
Kerman the Islamic State group carried
out the biggest bomb attack in Iran in
decades and Iran retali ated with
strikes in Syria aimed at what it
claimed were Islamic State positions
there were also missile strikes in Iraq
targeting what Iran claimed was an
Israeli spy base Iran also claims that
Israel and the US were in part
responsible for the Kerman attack Iran's
provided no evidence for either
allegation Iran is relevant to other
escalations in Iraq too in recent weeks
there's been an increase in attacks by
Shia militias on US forces in Iraq those
militias are backed by Iran then this
week another layer of complexity was
added on Tuesday Iran launched a missile
and drone attack in neighboring Pakistan
it said the target was an Iranian
militant group in response Pakistan
launched retaliatory strikes at Targets
inside Iran these developments don't
directly connect to Gaza but they do
connect to Iran's broader efforts to
establish its military strength in the
region there more evidence of how fluid
the security situation is and faced with
that situation each country each
military group has choices to make for
now the houthis keep attacking shipping
in the Red Sea and the US has
redesignated the houthis AS Global
terrorists it continues its military
action too the Americans argue this is
the way to stop disruption in the Red
Sea but not everyone takes that
position France decided not to join a
coalition that sought to carry out or
had carried out preemptive strikes
against the houthis on their
soil why precisely because we have a
stance that seeks to avoid any
escalation but escalation is what's
happening and this week Iran had this
message if the genocide in Gaza stops
then it will lead to the end of other
crisis and attacks in the
region Israel denies carrying out
genocide and an end to hostilities in
Gaza will certainly not end the
long-standing tensions in the region but
while we are some distance from a
fullscale regional War there's no doubt
the Israel Gaza War continues to pour
fuel onto fires that were already
burning