With no clear support from Muslim states, Iran may rethink scope of attack on Israel: Report

As fellow Islamic nations have not offered direct support for an attack on Israel, Iran may rethink the scope of its widely-expected attack, according to a report.

Following the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, which Iran blamed on Israel, Iran vowed to punish Israel. For more than a week, the United States and Israel have said that the attack may come anytime. There are fears that the anticipated Iranian attack and subsequent Israeli response could plunge the Middle East in an all-out war .

Now, The Guardian has reported that owing to lack of support for the attack from fellow Islamic nations, Iran may rethink the scope of its attack.

The newspaper, however, said that Iran is not going to cancel the plan to attack but may scale it down. It may now attack those responsible for the attack, specifically the Mossad and other Iranian agencies, instead of civilians.

Lack of Muslim countries’ support may affect Iran’s plan: Report

At a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Saudi Arabia this week, the member-states condemned the Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran in unison, but they did not explicitly support the widely-anticipated attack on Israel.

At the meeting, Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that the assassination must be avenged but they must not fall into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trap of “design for a wider war”.

Moreover, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has met Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri twice since Haniyeh’s assassination. He has told Iran that Jordan will not allow its airspace to be used by Iran and would shoot down missiles, drones, or rockets if the pass through Jordanian airspace.

Safadi told CNN that Jordan has conveyed to both Israel and Iran that no one should use the Jordanian airspace. He said the first commitment of the country is to its own people and it would not allow Iran or Israel to make Jordan a party of their conflict.

“Our message has been clear to the Iranians, to the Israelis, that we will not be a battleground for anybody. We will not allow anybody, to the extent that we can, to violate our airspace. Our first responsibility is towards our people, protecting the sovereignty of our country and the safety of our people. So our position is that nobody should use our airspace, nobody should subject our people to the threat of any projectile falling over any of our territory and harming our people, and that is a position that we’ve communicated to both the Iranians and the Israelis in very unequivocal terms,” said Safadi.

The Guardian has reported that as so many days have passed since Haniyeh’s assassination, officials are increasingly saying that Iran has no intention of starting a regional war or causing mass civilian casualties inside Israel.

The Wall Street Journal has, however, reported that Iran has told Arab leaders that it no longer cares if its attack triggers an all-out war in the Middle East .