Israel Tests Iran’s “Strategic Patience”

In recent weeks, attacks widely attributed to Israel have targeted high-ranking Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian militia members and officers. The list includes Razi Mousavi, a Quds Force field commander in Syria, who was assassinated in Damascus December 25, 2023; Hamas Politburo Vice-Chairman Saleh Arouri, who was assassinated January 2; Wissam Hassan al-Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, who was assassinated January 8 in Nabatieh, Lebanon; and Hezbollah drone chief Ali Hussein Borji, who was assassinated January 9. In the latest round of attacks, the Quds Force’s intelligence chief for Syria, his deputy, and three other Quds Force officers were killed in a January 20 strike in the Mazzeh neighborhood of southwest Damascus.

Iran and its allies have for the most part shown restraint in their reactions to the suspected Israeli strikes, in line with what Iranian leaders often refer to as Iran’s “strategic patience,” an approach likely designed to avoid providing Israel with a pretext for an all-out war against Iran that could also involve the United States. The coming days and weeks will show whether Iranian leaders and their allies will still adhere to this approach.

• January 20: Supreme National Security Council mouthpiece Nour News reported on the death of five “Iranian military advisors in Syria.”
• January 20: In a written statement released by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece Mashregh News and other news agencies, President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the killing of “military advisors” and said the deed would not go “unanswered by the fighters of the resistance front.”
• January 20: Nour News, quoting Beirut-based and Lebanese Hezbollah-aligned Al Mayadeen television, reported that U.S. forces at Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq came under fire in a rocket and ballistic missile attack claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

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