Alwaght- On Tuesday evening, southern Beirut residents were shocked with a huge explosion. Shortly later, the news of the explosion hit the world media headlines as it became clear that the operation targeted Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and a number of the movement’s commanders. There is no doubt that this assassination in the middle of Gaza war is of various effects and importance and questions about its consequence on the course of war and regional stability present themselves. To shed light on aspects of the assassination, Alwaght talked to West Asia and Palestine affairs expert Seyyed Hadi Afghahi.
Alwaght: What are Israeli goals behind the assassination? What was al-Arouri’s role and place in Hamas?
Afghahi: It is crystal clear that three months after Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and desperate Israeli efforts to realize its stated goals like release of prisoners and disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups and also relocation of Gaza people from their home, the Israelis have gone nowhere, and even the figures of losses in Israeli war machine and forces began to rise. After these failures, the Israeli government resorted to Plan B which is spreading war to the region.
Certainly, there would be some changes to the regional equations. The goal is to involve Iran into the conflict. After Israeli regime last week assassinated General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, the Islamic Republic did not play in the Israeli game with an uncalculated move, though Quds Force’s commander General Esmail Qaani vowed a sophisticated response to this crime. And now that the Zionists are desperate, they resort to assassination of the military and political commanders of Hamas and al-Arouri, who was Hamas security and military chief and masterminded Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and was the architect of the plan of arming the West Bank. Earlier, Netanyahu had announced that al-Arouri was on the Israeli hit list.
Falling short of reaching its goals in Gaza offensive, Israel is now struggling to expand the conflict to the region and bring Hezbollah to war as the latter has so far engaged in a controlled and managed mode in the war and its operations have been limited to northern occupied territories and southern Lebanon, and lost about 125 of its forces in defense of the Palestinian cause. However, given the warning of Hezbollah chief Sayed Hassan Nasrallah about any Israeli assassination on Lebanon soil targeting whether a Lebanese figure or non-Lebanese, Hezbollah’s response is definite. On Wednesday, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah was supposed to give a speech after meeting with Martyr al-Arouri, but it was postponed to Friday to see what the new position and tactics of Hamas inside Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon will be, especially since this assassination is a kind of challenging Hezbollah in the bastion of the movement in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Alwaght: What is your prediction of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups’ possible response and revenge?
Afghahi: Definitely, the reaction should be very calculated and Netanyahu should not be given the opportunity and room to regionalize the war and engage the US and Iran in this war. This is Netanyahu’s main hope and goal after the disgraceful failure in the Gaza war, especially after ground offensive and losing a large number of tanks and armored vehicles and troops. I predict that the response will definitely be painful and effective, but at the same time, Netanyahu and his criminal cabal should not be given the opportunity to embroil the US in the war. If this happens and Netanyahu succeeds, the entire region will definitely be involved in war and no country in the region will be immune to its effects.
Alwaght: Given the key place of al-Arouri in Hamas’s security and political structure, will his assassination undermine Hamas in general or its position in the war?
Afghahi:No, this will definitely not happen. See, when Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was assassinated, Abdulaziz Rantisi took over the leadership of Hamas and this group grew bigger. When the Zionist regime arrested and martyred Fathi Shaqaqi, the founder of Islamic Jihad, Islamic Jihad became bigger. Today, Islamic Jihad is nothing less than Hamas.
Israeli regime martyred Hezbollah chief Abbas al-Mousavi but Hezbollah grew stronger and now it is not only a power inside Lebanon, but also in the region. When General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis were martyred by the gambler and terrorist Trump, Axis of Resistance became stronger and the back-to-back defeats were imposed on the US and Israeli regime, the latest of which was Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and Operation Thaar Al-Ahrar. Actually, the precautions are taken and the organization of resistance is engineered in a way that loss of commanders does not blow their structure, though these commanders play a key role in the operations. After all, they are facing an enemy enjoying the most advanced spying equipment and arms and can strike these leaders any time. We can see that after general Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, their successors followed their path resolutely, and experience has proven that elimination cannot block their path and their goals will be followed more insistently.
Four years after martyrdom of General Soleimani, we can see how his blood is moving the people. Even in some European capitals, demonstrators in support of Palestine raise poster of General Soleimani next to Palestinian flag.
Alwaght: This assassination followed a meeting of Hamas commanders at their Lebanon command room. Will it influence management of war from this command room?
Afghahi: This command center and joint operation room will neither be dissolved with Israeli elimination of al-Arouri, nor will their operations be delayed.
