The US and UK “should not fight” in the escalating conflict in the Middle East, former Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis has claimed.
Tensions in the region continue to intensify after a significant missile attack was launched by Iran on Israel, firing up to 200 missiles on Tuesday night.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, said his country was facing “one of the most dangerous phases” in its history following the attack.
Speaking to GBN America, Lieutenant Davis warned the US and UK against a direct involvement in the conflict, despite being Israel’s “closest allies in the West”.
Lieutenant Daniel Davis has claimed that the UK and US ‘should not fight’ in the Middle East conflict
Reuters / GBNA
Detailing the risks, Davis explained: “The United States has just sent an additional aircraft carrier strike group with at least three squadrons of air power to the region, almost as though we’re planning to actually engage with that.
“The Secretary of Defence, Austin, has basically given Iran a warning that we’re prepared to do that. So this is, I think, on a knife edge to a regional war, which we should not fight.”
When pressed by host Patrick Christys on why the US and UK should avoid becoming involved in the fight, Davis claimed that Israel have “fought their own wars” on several other historic occasions, and are receiving a significant amount of defence funding from both countries to hold their own.
Davis told GBNA: “Israel has fought their own war in 1967, 1973. They fought the second Lebanese War in 2006, we didn’t fight with them any of those times.
Israel was struck with around 200 missiles on Tuesday night as Iran launched an attack
Reuters
“We have been giving them, especially for more than a decade, $3.8billion per year in security assistance, so that they could stand on their on their own. So if they stood on their own during all these times in the past, why should we expect that they can’t stand on their own here?”
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However, Davis stressed there is a “significant risk” of the US and UK amping up their support for Israel, fearing it may encourage leader Benjamin Netanyahu to “go further” than he may have gone without Western support.
Davis claimed: “There’s a bigger risk, though, I would argue, by sending in all this American firepower and all of these declarations of support, we give encouragement for Netanyahu to go further.
“If he had to rely on his own forces, he would have to use some combination of coercion and diplomacy, by not overreaching. But if you think you have the US armed forces over your shoulder, you’re going to be a lot more risk taking because you think somebody else can come fight for you.”
Delivering his verdict on the state of the Middle Eastern conflict following Iran’s attack, Davis warned that the outcome “could be worse than anything the US did in 2003 against Iraq”.
Lieutenant Daniel Davis said Netanyahu could be ‘encouraged to go further’ with US and UK support
GBNA
Davis told GBNA: “This is a bad situation because I guarantee you, whatever anybody thinks, this war against Iran would be far, far worse than anything that we did in 2003 against Iraq.
“It’s a much bigger place, and you have the potential for Russia to be involved in one way or another, because they have now a military relationship with Iran.
“And I doubt very seriously that they’re going to allow them to go down against the Israeli and US war. So that could also expand every way you want to look at this. It is bad to go to war.”