WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The current escalation of the Middle East conflict may lead to the end of Palestine’s existence as a state, for which Iran and Syria will be blamed while the conflict may spill over, former US Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts told Sputnik.
“The consequence for Palestine is that there will be no two-state solution. Palestine will cease to exist,” Roberts said.
“Iran and Syria will be blamed. This could result in the conflict widening and a dramatic increase in the price of oil and disruption of many economies.”
Citing high-ranking sources in the Hamas and Hezbollah movements, US media reported on Sunday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had allegedly assisted Hamas since August in the planning of the attacks against Israel and that they had allegedly been given the green light by Tehran during a meeting in Beirut on October 2.
Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, according to media reports, told lawmakers during a Sunday briefing that they have not found a connection between Iran and the Hamas attack, but that may still be possible.
Roberts believes that the attacks by Hamas on Israel play into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hands and unite the world behind Israel.
“Netanyahu now has the excuse to seize all of Palestine and to expel the remaining Palestinians,” he explained. “Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens likely means the end of Palestine. It is difficult to understand why Hamas, which has no prospect of defeating Israel in war, decided to commit suicide for Palestine.”
Roberts went on to say it is also difficult to understand such an “extraordinary failure” of the Israeli security system, including the Iron Dome built by the US.
“How is it possible that there were no warnings of such a large attack? One question is whether Israel permitted the attack in order to have the excuse to terminate the decadeslong conflict by terminating what remains of Palestine,” he said.
“How did such a large supply of weapons pass through Israeli security to enter Palestine? The attack is on a scale that seems too large to go undetected.”
On Saturday, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip, a move that prompted Israel to invoke Article 40 of the Basic Law and officially enter the nation into a state of war.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, with supplies of food, gas, and energy to the area to be stopped. Both Israel and Palestine have so far reported hundreds of dead and thousands of injured as a result of the escalation.
By Sputnik Globe
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Republished by The 21st Century
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