‘Israel feels it is the right time to strike Iran’

"What I fear is that if there is such an attack, it will again create retaliation from Iran and then the war will continue," Ambassador (ret.) Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo, the former acting NATO secretary-general, tells Kathimerini in an interview. Formerly in charge of improving NATO's relations with the Gulf and Southern Mediterranean countries, the current president of the NATO Defense College Foundation observes that with the deaths of the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, the Israeli government is aiming to "settle scores" with Iran's proxies, looking at the Tehran regime in the long term.

Israel's modern doctrine is aimed at eliminating the leadership of terrorist organizations that threaten it, rather than simply eliminating their members. How do you assess the strategic thinking of the Israeli leadership?

The situation in the Middle East is more...