Netanyahu is "probably provoking the Iranian leadership to react to have a further justification to hit the country and, ideally, to draw the US to join Israel in attacking Iran," Dr. Marco Carnelos, former Italian diplomat and Middle East adviser to Prime Ministers Prodi and Berlusconi, told Sputnik.
In the wake of Tuesday's missile strikes, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran exercised "legitimate self-defense rights" in response to Israel's aggression.
The missile attack followed Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon and air raids against Yemen and Syria. Together with Iran, those countries form the so-called Axis of Resistance which has opposed Israel's war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
Netanyahu claimed that "Iran made a big mistake" on October 1 and "will pay for it."
"There is no doubt that Israel is leveraging Washington against Iran," Carnelos said, but it was "far from certain if the Biden Administration will decide to join Israel in attacking Iran unleashing a regional war."
The former Italian diplomat said the Biden administration wants to avoid a direct confrontation with Iran before November’s presidential election. Voters have no interest in starting "another potential endless war in the Middle East," the pundit stressed.