Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): On March 14, a house near the US consulate in Erbil was hit by a barrage of ballistic missiles in the early hours of dawn. It was not known at first who was the group that launched them, but Iraqi security agencies confirmed shortly after the incident that the missiles were fired from outside the border. 

In less than two hours, Iran claimed responsibility for firing 12 ballistic missiles, saying it targeted a Mossad headquarters in Erbil that was preparing hostile acts against Iran and had already carried out a sabotage operation inside the Iranian territories. 

Opinions were divided at the time between supporters, opponents, denouncers and welcomers, but the objective of the attack remained a mystery for days following the operation amid israeli silence and Kurdish denial, while the Iraqi government said it had opened an investigation into the incident. 

Two days after the incident, a US diplomat spoke anonymously to the American "New York Times" stressing that the target was a training headquarters for the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, expressing surprise at the Iranian audacity to carry out the operation, because the targeted house was a few meters away from the US consulate in Erbil.

The Iranians were clear that they would not tolerate any Mossad presence close to the Iranian border, and they seemed to have learned lessons from the Russian experience of not responding to the threat at a proper time, which led to NATO's gradual expansion into something like a blockade of the largest country in the world.

The Iranian attack had its implications in terms of timing, as it happened while the United States was preparing to revive the nuclear deal with Iran after long talks in Vienna.

Such a move could led to the failure of the negotiations that are coming to an end, and the location of the headquarters near the US consulate "required exceptional boldness," as the US diplomat noted in an interview with "The New York Times" what is understood is that Iran does not mind going too far in the face of what it considers an "Israeli threat".

Apparently, from the timing and merits of this strike, Iran wanted to send a message to its neighbors that it was willing to go this far if its interests or national security were specifically compromised by Israel.

All we hope is to keep our country far from becoming a region of regional conflict or advanced confrontation, whether with Iran or other countries. 

Arabic Version