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Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-898915
Israel Will Not Allow Iran a Veto over Operations Against Hizbullah in Lebanon
(Media Line-Jerusalem Post) Gabriel Colodro - Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and former head of the research division in IDF Military Intelligence, said the renewed fighting between Iran and Israel reflected dissatisfaction on both sides. Iran is under pressure from the U.S. blockade, sanctions, economic hardship, and the weakening of its proxies. Israel, meanwhile, remains unwilling to accept a reality in which Hizbullah can rebuild or operate from southern Lebanon while Iran attempts to deter Israeli action there. "Mostly the Iranians are worried because the situation is putting a lot of pressure on them. Their proxies are suffering heavily. We want the threat from Hizbullah to be much lower and better dealt with....We made it clear that we are not going to let Hizbullah deploy in the south. If they operate from the south, there's going to be a price for that. The Iranians were trying to prevent us from doing that by their threat." For Kuperwasser, the central issue is whether Iran will be allowed a direct veto over Israeli operations in Lebanon. "The most important thing is, of course, that our ability to take action in Lebanon is not limited and compromised. We should not accept Iran becoming a player in Lebanon." Kuperwasser rejected the idea that Israel had formally declared regime change as the goal. "We never said that the goal of this war is to change the regime. We said that we would like to create the conditions that would enable the Iranian people to change the regime."