Rula Jebreal: Iran Is Also Avoiding Direct Confrontation with America

EXCERPT:

JEBREAL: “You have the Sunni Arabs, Jordanians and others, who -- they don‘t want escalation, they are very critical of what Israel is doing in Gaza, especially the starvation and the indiscriminate bombing. They understand this is not good for regional stability. They are very worried that Israel doesn‘t want a greater piece, but want a greater Israel, and that‘s why there are hitting Lebanon, they‘re hitting Syria, they‘re hitting — so, they're worried. But when Iran attacked, you saw that the Jordanians themselves actually stepped up their game, they helped Israel, even though the Jordanian themselves are very critical. But you saw the other axis of, you know, what they called the axis of resistance, Iran, Hezbollah, basically, even the Iraqis — the Iraqi prime minister informed the Americans. So the fact that even the Iraqi prime ministers and other in the Shia world informed the Americans, that means the ultimate goal of the Iranians in this moment, not to enter in a direct confrontation with Americans. They want to avoid that. That doesn‘t mean they are not going to enter in confrontation directly and indirectly. I mean, you might see more cyber attacks and hidden attacks between Israel and Iran, but there would never be a direct confrontation because they want to avoid a collapse of the region and a wider war.”