Tehran is eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, officials in the region say.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran, eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against U.S. forces, according to officials in the region.Israel’s brutal war on Hamas in Gaza has stoked conflict between the United States and Iran’s proxy forces on multiple fronts.
To emphasize the new directive, Iran has dispatched military leaders and diplomats across the region to meet with local officials and militia members. It’s been a balancing act for Iran since Oct. 7, when Hamas’s surprise attack on Israeli communities near Gaza triggered the war there. But those gains could be lost, the officials warned, if Israel opens another front in Lebanon. The Hezbollah member summarized the message: Netanyahu is squeezed in the corner now. Don’t give him a way out. Let us not give him the benefit of launching a wider war, because that would make him a winner.
One Iranian-backed group has given no indication of standing down. The Houthis in Yemen have disrupted global trade by harassing commercial shipping through the Red Sea, a key link between Asia, Europe and the Americas to protest the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
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