The EconomistAugust 31st 2019 411A
n explosion andsubsequent fire in
the early hours of August 25th in Bei-
rut’s Dahiye neighbourhood led to fevered
speculation. Were they caused by two
quadcopter drones, one of which was cap-
tured in a shaky video moments before?
Were the drones Israeli or Iranian? Was the
intended target a media office of Hizbullah,
as the Lebanese militia suggested? Or was
the target Iranian-supplied equipment to
improve the guidance systems of Hizbul-
lah missiles, as anonymous “intelligence
services” claimed? One thing seems sure:
the episode is part of a broadening of the
battlefields between Israel and Iran.
Lebanon was one of the earliest front-
lines. Iran helped found Hizbullah there in
1985 to fight the Israeli army, which had in-
vaded its northern neighbour. More re-
cently the conflict has expanded to Iraq. A
series of explosions there has been as-
cribed to Israel. “Iran doesn’t have immu-
nity anywhere,” said Binyamin Netanyahu,
Israel’s prime minister, neither confirming
nor denying responsibility. Israel accuses
Iran of spreading missile and attack-drone
technology. The sites targeted in Iraq are
bases of Iranian-backed militias which
may have been storing Iranian missiles.
The explosion in Beirut came just hours
after an Israeli air strike near Damascus,
where a team of Iranian and Hizbullah op-
eratives were said to have been preparing
to launch drones against Israel, apparently
in retaliation for the attacks in Iraq. This
time Mr Netanyahu was quick to acknow-
ledge responsibility. (Lebanon’s state me-
dia claimed that Israel also struck the base
of a Palestinian organisation aligned withIran and Hizbullah near the Lebanon-Syria
border on August 26th.)
The world’s attention, meanwhile, was
on diplomacy. France’s president, Emman-
uel Macron, engineered a surprise visit by
Iran’s foreign minister, Muhammad Javad
Zarif, to the g7summit in Biarritz. Mr Mac-
ron has been trying to salvage the nuclear
deal signed by Iran and six world powers in- The agreement limits Iran’s nuclear
programme in exchange for the partial lift-
ing of sanctions. President Donald Trump
withdrew from it last year and embarked
on a policy of “maximum pressure” to crip-
ple Iran’s economy.
Mr Macron dangled the prospect of a
summit between Mr Trump and his Iranian
counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Mr Trump
seemed tempted by the idea. So did Mr
Rouhani, at first. “If I know that by meeting
someone, the problem of my country will
be solved, I will not hesitate,” he said in a
speech. But, under pressure from hard-
liners, he later backed away, saying that
there can be no meeting unless America
first lifts its sanctions on Iran.
Israel is keen for America to maintain
pressure on Iran. It worries about the strat-
egy of regional expansion championed by
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and sup-
ported by the country’s supreme leader, Ali
Khamenei. In recent weeks Israeli officials
have warned that this strategy now in-
cludes a full rapprochement with Hamas,
Israel v Iran
The plots thicken
JERUSALEM
New fronts open up in a festering conflict, as Israel braces for an attack
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