Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel are "goading the Iranians," through the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other actions, into direct involvement in the ongoing war in hopes of getting the United States more involved, retired Ambassador John Limbert said on Newsmax Sunday.
"Iran, of course, was the creator or the spiritual father of Hezbollah back in the 1980s," Limbert told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "It's very clear to me what Netanyahu and the Israelis are doing is they're goading the Iranians to try to get them involved. If the Iranians get involved, then it's very possible the U.S. would get involved. It's a very clear strategy, and you can see what he's trying."
Limbert, a veteran U.S. diplomat has served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. He was also an official at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where he was held captive for 14 months during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.
Meanwhile, even with Nasrallah dead, Hezbollah's infrastructure is still there, said Limbert.
"Rooting out the infrastructure, rooting out the system, and rooting out the networks is much harder than that," he said. "Maybe they will keep killing people … is that going to resolve the problem or improve Israel's security or improve stability in the Middle East? I very much doubt it."
But the Israelis have "put the Iranians in a box," and even though Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has vowed revenge, he will not get his country in a wider war if he wants his regime to survive, said Limbert.
The situation is also an embarrassment to new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, he said.
"The worst enemy for Israel, for Netanyahu, is an Iranian president who speaks reasonably," said Limbert, noting that prior Iranian Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Ebrahim Raisi made "perfect" enemies.
However, it is a "fool's errand" to try to predict what will happen next, he added.
"The Iranians, of course, are facing their own pressures to react but so far they've resisted and they will probably use proxy groups like some in Iraq or Yemen," said Limbert. "But so far they have been very reluctant to get directly involved."
Meanwhile, the United States has a "very strong team" working on the Middle East situation, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Director of Central Intelligence William Burns, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and national security advisers, said Limbert.
"The priority is for us not to get dragged into a wider war and also to do something to protect the innocent civilians in that area, whether they're whether they're Israelis, whether they're, Palestinians in Gaza, whether they're Lebanese, Lebanese, wherever they are," said Limbert. "That seems to be the last thing on the minds of the leaders, on any side of this conflict."
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