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Israeli Strikes on Iran Cap Dramatic Shift in Mideast Strategic Balance

(Washington Post) Steve Hendrix - Israel's go-for-broke attacks on Iran launched just over a week ago - after decades of intense but largely covert conflict between the two powers - have dramatically shifted the strategic balance, according to analysts in Israel, even before American bombers entered the fray. Iran - perceived for years by not only Israel but many countries in the Arab Gulf region as the primary menace - has been exposed as a far hollower military force than many in the world believed. The decades-old status quo has been shattered, with Israel now ascendant as the Middle East's unchallenged military power, while Iran and its "axis of resistance" are in disarray. The region has already been transformed in several essential ways. Israel no longer faces the intense threats from just across its borders once posed by Hamas and Hizbullah. Syrian rebels have shaken off the tyranny of the Assad regime and with it, the influence of Iran and Russia, which had long dominated Syria. "Both Syria and Lebanon are on a new and hopefully promising trajectory," said Paul Salem, former president of the Middle East Institute in Beirut. And Israel has rebounded from the devastating Oct. 7 attacks of 20 months ago. While Israeli hostages are still held by Hamas, Israel is now in its strongest strategic position in decades, operating militarily beyond its borders in Lebanon, southern Syria and now over Iran. "We've never used the word 'unprecedented' so often," said Renad Mansour, a senior research fellow at Chatham House in London. "This will be one of those hugely impactful moments in the history books. What emerges after this will not look like it was on Oct. 6. Israel's attack on Iran cements that." Especially striking are the rapid deterioration of Iran's strategic position and the collapse of its decades-long enterprise to project power across the region via a network of allied militant armies, including in Iraq and Yemen. "Iran was an imperial power that once boasted of controlling four Arab capitals: Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sanaa," said Salem. "My God, have they come down in the world.
2025-06-22 00:00:00
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