How Netanyahu's Washington visit paved the way for regional war
The first US response to the double assassinations this week in Beirut and Tehran came from Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on 31 July.
In the wake of Israel's targeted killing of Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah's top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon, Austin reiterated the US's "unwavering support" for Israel and pledged to come to its defence if attacked.
As Israel ramps up its military provocations, it is now more apparent than ever that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bellicose address in Congress last week was the opening salvo of a wider regional war - to the rapturous applause of US lawmakers.
Indeed, in the days before and after Netanyahu's visit to Washington, the Israeli regime attacked and killed scores of civilians in Hodeidah port in Yemen, Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the southern Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut in Lebanon, and crossed a new threshold by assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran.
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