of hello and welcome. just few hours ago the iranian consulate in damascus came under a missile attack and it was completely raised to the ground. so far, what we know is that at least five people, three of them iranians have been killed in this attack, and according to the... iranian foreign minister

and iranian sources as well as the iranian ambassador in damascus, israel should be held responsible for this attack, which is of course very big red line crossed by the israeli regime, according to both of these officials, and this will be the topic of tonight's show. i'm gisumi shah ahmadi and you're watching the spotlight. we will be discussing this attack. with our guests jamal in wakim, professor of international relations of from the lebanese university joining us live from beirot and also saib shath, author and west asia expert who was joining us live from belfast. thank you very much to both of you gentlemen for joining us. now uh, this was the big news. the day making the headlines

and of course uh attracting lot of attention uh and of course it should definitely deserves that much attention because although we've had israel uh undermining syria's sovereignty time and again attacking different targets in syria's soil. this time it crossed very big red line by attacking the counsulate of iran right next to its embassy a in damascus raising the whole building to... the ground, so mr. jamal wakim, in your opinion, why did israel choose to attack the irani cancel at this point in time? well, first we need to understand the nature of the objective targeted by israel, which is the iranian consulate, considered as iranian territory, we know that embassies and consulates all over the world are considered

as territories of the country that they represent, so this is a big red line that israel is crossing, in addition, it's targeting of course iranian diplomats other than the iranian military commanders, which is another factor that needs to be taken in consideration, so why at this time? "israel is going into such escalation, i believe that it's trying to achieve something a time when it's dragging on, the war is dragging on and it's not being able to achieve tangible results against the on resistance in gaza, nor against the armed resistance in lebanon, and "it might be that the israelis want to

turn the attention of the whole world, especially the west, away from gaza onto a side conflict that it's trying to drag iran to, in order to justify its continuous war against gaza on one hand, and in order to silence the criticism, some of the criticism against it and..." in the west, especially among some governments which are voicing their concern, western governments, which started to voice their concerns about the human toll in gaza on one hand and who are considering withdrawing their support to israel in this aggression on the other hand. okay, so mr. shath, our guest from beirot believes that israel is trying to deviate attention at this point in time from the... of

ongoing genocidal war on gaza. uh, now before we get into what's going on in gaza and what is exactly the position of israel right now in? and whether or not it has been able to achieve any of its military objectives there uh let's uh look at some other uh issues that could be taken into consideration and one of them is the fact that israeli media have been uh stating that they intended to attack a car that was parked in front of the consulate and not the consulate itself so uh first of all aside from fact that uh this could not be considered legitimate excuse because the conunsulat building has been completely raised to the ground uh what does that mean? is israel afraid of any kind of escalation because as our guest in beirout just mentioned uh this is very serious

provocation. yes, it is very serious provocation, but from what i witnessed lately, the united states of america or the zis institute. give d about what the public opinions internationally is concerned or not, and the the only thing, even his own public opinion, we see the administrators for the release of their own hostages or that, they don't give a down, they want to continue war, netanyahu, for him, the war is lifesaver, he can stays in power and he can be immune, so a way i agree with jamal about the failures in gaza, they cannot even justify any anything to their own public opinion or to the united states of america or the western supporters, they want to move forward, especially after last night when the iraqi

resistant managed to attack elat navy base and devastated it, actually we seen the smoke, we seen the... and the ambulances all of that that direct hit and the same thing we see the how the palestinian resistance are still in control and the zinanists and the americans and the western forces who's taking part in there because we know there is a french on the ground with dual citizenship there is american expertise there is what they call it surveillance british drones and fighters in the in the region. and all of that we see the palestinian is still showing a formidable resistance and in yemen as well the resistant camp in yemen extended its influence and made the american armada from air carriers fighter jets carriers and ships

looks like absolute in the region and it's extended the influence of the targets we said will reach from the arabian sea the red sea the the the indian ocean even to africa, so after the any any zinust ships or in or going ship, so they seen all of that and they see no before few couple of months ago they were talking about devastating syria, to isolate syria totally from the supply chain as they call it of the resistance, and that's why we seen how they sneak. with their fighter just from the tanap which is supported and protected that region by american radars and american surveillance system to go and hit in in alipo and the same thing we see the resistance as well is increasing its own

activities to target and keep the momentum high to target the z entity if you can see there is the ira is hit as well in in in haifa and in ilat and the yemen is as well and the no lebanese resistant escalating with using a new weapons and new techniques all of that, but the american higimony in that region in a question and this is why we see there is consensus in the west in supporting design entity even not even complicit in genocide with it but even party to the gen genicidal war, so targeting an iranian property and an iranian sovereign peace of land like the embassy and the consult in there, it's escalating that because they believe themselves without the iranian technology and transfer the know how to the

resistance in gaza or in in yemen or in in lebanon, they or in iraq they won't be able to to direct such. so there is escalation here and the the israelies already raise the the alarm to all of their embasses around the world uh to to be on the guard okay so mr. wakim, uh, before we delve into the issues that were just raised by mr. shath, has israel achieved any of its military objectives, the ones that it stated before it started the war on gaza? so far, israel didn't uh achieve any of its declared objectives, it couldn't destroy the resistance there, it couldn't free the prisoners of... war and it couldn't expel the palestinian people out of gaza strip onto

siini as it intended, the only thing that israel was able to achieve there was to target civilians destroy gaza, the whole infrastructure, the target civilians and kill more than 35000 civilians so far, most of them are children and and women and of course it's trying to terrorize the the civilian population as mean to render what was considered as victory achieved by the resistance into a very coastly victory that's what the israelis are trying to do and of course this is part of their tradition, part their culture to to commit genocide against

the arabs, and this was this is not the first time that they massacker civilian people, we we have hundreds of evidence throughout the arab israeli struggle. as far as it concerns, for example, the military strikes, against lebanon and syria, they have been able to target some high ranking officials and this is due to the bitterness they feel in their conflict against the resistance both in gaza and in southern lebanon and of course uh against the his and the resistance in iraq because they think that it it's iran that is supporting all these resistance. fractions and a common cause against the israeli

occupation and colonization of palestine, so this is what's going on and this is how we could understand israeli actions. so mr. shath, as our guest from beirot just clearly stated, israel has not been able to achieve any of its military objectives, the one that it had stated at the beginning. uh of this war and on the other hand, like our guest said, we have over uh 35,000 palestinians killed, more than 75,00 injured in these attacks that is now being called a genocidal war. israel has a court case in the icj against it, the investigations are on going, it even has a provisional ruling that has been issued, we are seeing demonstrations in countries that uh were traditionally the

allies of israel, now we're seeing people coming out chanting slogans against the israeli regime, where does this leave the zionist entity? the zianist entity, let's say it historically put it in the perspective, from the time when the french revolution came with the slogan of jewish emancipation, it was an idea to lens all the the jews from europe and put them in in palestine, and this is when the french led their campaign and occupied egypt and tried to occupy palestine in 1799. ponapart failed in creating design entity, which is today is there and to make it as a tool for his own domination of the world, the english then achieved that goal and that, so the zinus entity all long it was a colonial project, it doesn't matter the lies these designist secular or religious

factions of it they can produce, we notice the zist factions, the right wing was allied to nazi germany and organized with hitler their own evacuation of of jews before the holocaust to the to palestine and they left the zienist like hagana. and all of that factions of terrorist groups were allied to the british, so they were bitting in the in the in in the two horses in the game, if the german wins, the nazis, they are with the... winning and if the the the the united states of america and the british and the soviet union won, they are with them as well, so this is what we see, it's it's always the they put themselves as to be the prize of the the winner in there and to function as its own military base there, and so in the this is what they are, so israel doesn't give a

dam, it's shield by the international law, and they think they are above the the law. because show, i'm sorry to cut you off right there because we have a limited amount of time, but uh, we can conclude by what you and our guest from beirot just said that israel is its weakest point ever in history uh, because it has a un resolution against it, it's a staunch ally, the us abstained from voting this time, uh, it has been isolated politically, from a diplomatic point of view, it has definitely lost the propaganda war uh, and when... whenever israel is a weak point, it usually carries out these attacks. it's not the first time this is happening to iran. uh, we've had uh razi musavi, general brigadier general razi musavi, another irgc commander that was targeted just four months ago. so uh, mr. wakim, uh, what do you think this attack means considering uh all the

issues that were just raised? uh, well, this attack is a big uh, infringement on iran's sovereignty and of course israel is trying to uh pull iran into a direct conflict, well if i put myself in the shoes of the iranian officials, they are in a very dire situation, because if they retaliate, if they react, they will be, they might be playing the game. name of israel, and if they don't, they would be, let's say embarrassed internationally by israel, so it's a very delicate equation here, would iran retaliate right now or leave it to another opportunity, especially that

the conflict is open and it will drag on in the future. uh, we shall wait and see, but i believe that iran has been hit hard, and maybe uh, it needs to retaliate, to react to such an aggression. okay, so mr. chauth, i see that you were shaking your head at some point in disagreement with our guest from beirot, and looking at iran's record, well, it's not the first time that iran has been put on the spot by israel. uh where uh it was provoked to uh carry out some kind of attack where um create some kind of escalation in the region and when we look back in history every time iran has responded to these attacks but in a very strategic uh manner and with definitely uh consideration great consideration for the long-term consequences

of whatever it does uh so mr. shath uh although we had the uh iranian ambassador clearly stating that iran will be giving decisive response to this attack, what could that decisive response entil considering iran's history? you see, this is a significant escalation in its own, and by targeting sovereign, as i said, territory of iran, which is the embassy, we when donald trump... trump targeted the martur first sulaymani and in in iraq when he was brokering peace at the time himself and was officially invited to the country the iranian government didn't wait and they devastated

asad the biggest american military base around the world which is in iraq they didn't they didn't wait it's it means up to the country to see its act and straight away take, it's not about tit and tat kind of activity, it's it's here, it's the dignity of the nation, the dignity of the people, it's the marters need to be revenged before as the the arab would say before the their blood dry on the ground, so that is kind of aggression, it's need to be responded to, when how that is up to the iranian? people and the syrian government as well, since this is happened on syria's ground, syria is as well, i see is partly responsible, we know all the syrian air defense. was destroyed from the the terror and takfiri war wished by the western and the zianist countries in syria when they dismantled they supposed to be revolutionary

the raiders and the anti-air missiles and that and kept syria is open and this is the result of their operation which is organized by designs and the americans at the time, syria cannot defend itself, not not even 10%, i don't want to say more. and from f30 35 and sophisticated american weaponry, so the united states of america since the day it's input sanctions against iran from the day of the islamic revolution in 79 till today it's put iran as the bolsai as they say and it's target and the iranian people and the iranian government and leadership understand that very well. iran today is 100% times stronger than before and iran's today is scared them in the region because iran leading a resistant camp is on the win and putting the

their projects of higimony and the zionist project on the reverse so the the resistance or iran won't be afraid of of of revenging the the the the mar of its own people okay so mr. wakim we don't have much time left but why do you do you think uh and this uh recent sentence by mr. shath which it totally echoed the comments made by the iranian ambassador to damascus that iran is not afraid of israeli atrocities um where do you think this courage comes from and what exactly does that mean? well of course iran has been able to build its power over the uh for the past four decades or even five decades now uh and it has sophisticated well. happens, it was able to build its economy, despite the sanctions and despite the boycott imposed on it by the west, and lot of powers not only in the

region but worldwide are relying on iranian weapons and technology now, but the the that's why the iranians are so confident in their stance, and this has been experienced before, especially in confrontation with the united states, but so i believe that iran has the capability to react and to retaliate, however it's all about the timing, what would be the best time that iran would choose to retaliate? this is this is the question, well thank you very much, i'm afraid that's all the time that we have jamal wakim, professor of international. relations from the lebanese university, joining us live from beirot and also sath author and west asia expert joining us live from belfast. thank you very much to

both of you gentlemen for sharing your thoughts and views with us on this edition of spotlight. and thanks to all of you viewers for watching this edition. we're ready to marsh, let's just start slowly but strongly and solidarity with the palestine and israel is one of the worst things that has happened or zionism is one of the worst things that has happened to the jewish people. the my experience. really, really wasn't until the 80's that i was able to open my heart enough to see truly what israelism had done and was

doing and continue to do. i did not grow up as an anti-zionist, which is what i am today. i grew up as a zionist in a very zionist family that identified judaism with. trianism.

your press of headlines, islamic revolution guard core says israel's attack on iran's consular building in damascus is a result of reparable defeat it suffered in gaza. iran and hamas. call for international probe into crimes committed by israel at gaza's al-shifa hospital. and islamic resistance in iraq says a stage fresh attacks on israeli targets in the port city of ealat in response to the regime's campaign of genocide in gaza.