LOS ANGELES.–Threatening to hold the U.S. accountable for Israel’s April 1 strike on Iran’s consular complex in Damascus, Syria, Iran’s 59-year-old Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian blamed the U.S. for the strike, killing seven Iranians, including Al Quds Commanter Mohammed Reza Zahedi. Iran’s 84-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei established Iran as the Mideast’s chief state sponsor of terrorism, funding-and-arming a number of terrorist groups for the purpose of attacking Israel, the U.S. and its allies like the U.K. Embroiled in a war with Iran- funded Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border massacre that slaughtered 1,200 Israel citizens, most of them teenagers, Iran has invited attacks from Israel, the only country willing to directly punish Tehran for attacking Israeli and the U.S. Iran’s Yemen-based Houothi terror group wreaks havoc on commercial shipping the Red Sea.

President Joe Biden, 81, has been reluctant to intercede in the Red Sea, occasionally hitting Houthi assets with ship-bashed Cruise missiles but doing little to stop the attacks on commercial shipping. Danish shipping giant Maersk announced it would no longer direct its freighters and tankers through the Suez Canal to the Red Sea, sending them instead around the Cape of Good Hope, adding to the time-and-cost of shipping. Hezbollah, another Iran-funded terror group based in Lebanon, threatened to retaliate against Israel and the U.S., waiting for the Ayatollah to give the signal. Abdollahian has a lot of nerve saying the U.S. or Israel is responsible for the attack when Iran sponsors attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets all over the Mideast and Horn of Africa. Iran thinks it can get away with its state sponsored terrorism with impunity in the region.

Biden and former President Barack Obama spent eight years and billions of U.S. tax dollars funding proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, all to see their proxy war go up in smoke in 2015 when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to save al-Assad’s Damascus regime. Biden’s vendetta with Putin stems from his failure to use various Syrian rebel groups to topple his Damascus government, no matter how much cash he gave the groups, including al-Qaeda and ISIS. Iran funds ISIS-K, the terror group in Afghanistan, once part of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s ISIS terror group that held large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq before a U.S.-armed Kurdish Peshmerga fighter drove them out. Now Iran’s ISIS-K continues to attack U.S. and Israeli interests. Obama and Biden made toppling al-Assad a top priority for two terms in power.

Hezbollah’s 63-year-old leader Hassan Nasrallah continue to fired rockets in Northern Israel claiming he would stop only after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends. Funding Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon was Iran’s way to “wipe Israel off the map,” as promised by former Iranian President Mahmouod Ahmadinejad. Amadinejad called in 2005 for “wiping Israel off the map,” sponsoring a Holocaust deniers conference in Tehran. Ahmadinejad’s provocations were challenged by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel who blasted Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust. Yet Iran’s Ayatollah continues its proxy war against Israel in the United States. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only world leader to hold the Ayatollah accountable for his state-sponsored terrorism by recently hitting Tehran’s Al Quds complex in Damascus.

Iran or Hezbollah has yet to respond to last week’s attack on Al Quds complex in Damascus. Iran has few good options knowing an attack on U.S. assets would prompt a retaliatory strike maybe this time on Tehran, something Biden has avoided, fearing a wider escalation to the Israeli-Gaza War. Whether Iran or Hezbollah tries to retaliate, any failed attack would make both look ineffectual. Ayatollah Khemenei works to maintain order in Iran still reeling from the 2022 Basij militia beating death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. If the Ayatollah over does his response, it could threaten mullah rule in Iran, something he’s not willing to do. Instead of acting clueless, Abdollahian should restrain his hypocrisy with Iran constantly attacking U.S. and Israel interests. So much more should have happened to Iran over its years of attacking the U.S. and Israel with its proxies.

Biden has grossly overestimated the possible response from Iran to Israel’s April 1 strike on its Damascus Al Quds complex. When former President Donald Trump ordered the predator drone strike Jan. 2, 2020 killing Al Quds leader Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, the Ayatollah summoned a feckless missile strike on Erbil’s Al-Assad U.S. airbase, injuring a few U.S. soldiers. What happens this time around is anyone’s guess but Ayatollah has limited options considering his frayed grip on power. If Biden were to attack Tehran directly over Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the U.S. wouldn’t be in its current timid position. Biden fears a wider conflict but his fears are all unfounded given Ayatollah’s own fears of losing power. Whatever happens with Gaza, the U.S. and Western powers should take a tougher stand on Tehran.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.