The missile strikes launched by Iran on US forces in Iraqi bases are calibrated, and not meant to incite a full-blown war, former diplomats in the Middle East told The Filipino Times.
“The missile attacks are ‘honor attacks’,” said University of the Philippines Regent Board member Angelo “Jijil” Jimenez, former labor attache to the Iran and Kuwait.
Jimenez noted that the missile strikes on the Iraqi bases in the west and north did not inflict physical damage on US facilities because “that is not the purpose” of the attacks.
“It’s a response to popular anger in Iran directed not so much to the US as to their domestic audience who are crying out for revenge,” Jimenez said referring to the assassination of Iranian popular military commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Suleimani in Iraq.
The former labor official added, “It was televised to ensure two things: (1) to show its public and allies in the region that they are capable of responding tit-for-tat and is not cowed, and will stay the course and (2) that it had all the hallmarks of a direct Iranian government action, and just its proxies.”
Suleimani is regarded as a national hero in Iran, fighting Iran’s proxy wars including providing support to the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Kurdish in Iraq and Syrian civil war. Hundreds of thousands came out on the streets for his funeral procession.
Retired Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, former ambassador to Tripoli and had long been regarded as the DFA’s crisis manager in the Middle East, likewise thinks that Suleimani tinder won’t explode similar to the Gulf War in 1990s.
“It seems there were no American casualties when Iranian missiles hit US bases in Iraq… So I don’t think that will cause the US to escalate further the already high tension with Iran,” Seguis told The Filipino Times.
Both former diplomats also see no need for forced repatriation of Filipino workers in Iran and Iraq.
For Seguis, “there is no such thing as forced repatriation” even if the contingency measure calls for it.
“Will they be charged with any civil offense if they do not comply?” he asked.
“Selective lang dapat, and must be supported by clear intelligence and with assumption that all contingency plans and implementing mechanisms are in place. But no forced mass repatriation,” Jimenez said.
