Seth Frantzman Profile picture
Oct 25, 2021 18 tweets 3 min read Read on X
🧵 One of the most misleading narratives is the claim that the US or Israel threaten “war” with Iran…not only is it the other way around, but it’s all a scam because Iran can’t afford a real “war”…you really think a regime like that would risk the results of such conflict
Consider for a second a member of the Iranian theocratic abusive regime, would be risk losing all that power in a conflict, he knows the average people despise him, he knows he crushed protests before
The Iran regime CANNOT afford war and does everything possible to avoid it, either through threats and boasting and bluffing or working with China, Turkey and Russia or by moving proxy pawns around Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to put the “conflict” somewhere else
Iran is a chess player, the regime is the king, it is feeble and weak but it has arrayed ♟ pawns all over to put the frontline far from home and create three thousand miles of potential underbelly it can strike at far from home, from the Gulf of Oman to Quneitra
That is why it is always nonsense when someone says that recent US statements mean their could be “war” this is just fear mongering talking point nonsense.
Ask these people who speak of “war”…HOW would a war take place. How would the Iran regime many of them adore and want to protect by creating a war narrative, how would it risk war? Are they kidding?
Iran’s regime doesn’t fight wars at home. It was traumatized by the war with Iraq in the 1980s that almost strangled the “revolution” in its cradle. Since then it decided to do a forward policy of proxy wars in the near abroad, strategic depth
So when anyone says that if there isn’t a deal there may be “war” they are being either naive, deceptive or purposely lying. The regime can never risk war with the US or Israel. It can accept certain amounts of low level conflict and sabotage and proxy conflict but not war
That is why Iran boasts a lot about war but what it invests in is PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY attacks using drones and rockets and piracy at sea and harassing ships with speedboats and empowering militias and recruiting Afghan kids for the IRGC in Albukamal
Iran will indeed fight conflicts to the last Iraqi PMU, the last poor Syrian, the last poor Shi’ite Hezbollah member, the last Houthi, but how many IRGC members lay down their lives? Not many.
Iran had its “great patriotic war” in the 1980s and saw enough martyrs, those old greying men who run the regime know the horror of war and don’t want more
The regime elites have their aesthetic, the ostensibly austere regime, those types like Ahmadinejad or Soleimani who supposedly had monk-like existence with no possessions like they are Franciscan friars…but massive war is not for them
Iran is a calculating regime. Zarif and friends spreads the “deal or war” lie to western publics they try studied snd focus-grouped this concept via opeds to see if fear of more “Middle East conflict” would scare people in the West.
Westerners want peace…Iran fears war…so HOW can there ever be war????? Israel also doesn’t want war and Israel is so far from Iran it can’t ever have a real “war” with Iran. THINK about it. It can’t happen. Just proxies and some strikes or incidents but not total war
So since we all know this, let’s stop the misleading story. Absence of a deal might mean some tensions and nuclear blackmail and if Iran crosses a nuclear red line and tries to detonate a device at home there will be attempts to prevent that.
That’s like if someone tried to stop the guys at Los Alamos from the test in 1945…..but that’s not war, that’s trying to stop a stupid act by a regime that is far too smart to ever really detonate a nuclear weapon anyway…think about it
Everyone knows that when Iran is at the threshold it will get a call from it’s new friends in China and it’s old friend in Moscow and also it’s partner in Ankara who will say “ok you scared the West but don’t do the next step”….
And they is why there can never be war. Iran can risk it. It’s friends will advise it. And that’s how things work. Learn and study the Iranian regime method. Read the Iranian media. Stop listening to western commentators who invented the “war” bogeyman.

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More from @sfrantzman

Sep 17
You can note the talking points put out by the anti-Israel, pro-Hezbollah crowd after the pager attack. It consists of claims the attack was "indiscriminate" and that it harmed civilians and that it is a "terrorist" attack.

It's so interesting and predictable. It's also so obvious.
Every time there is an incident, whether it was the hostage rescue in Gaza, or this, there is always a talking point factory. The arguments they make are never original. It's always just the same talking point repeated again and again.
Remember the hostage rescue when we were subjected to the talking point of "200 killed to rescue 4" or something like that...without any evidence that it was 200 civilians killed.
Read 5 tweets
Sep 16
Question: Almost a year after the October 7 attack, which plunged the region into a massive war, have you seen any articles about Middle Eastern countries or western countries conducting an internal probe into why their intelligence services didn't get wind of Hamas plans and warn?
Israel has been looking into intelligence failures on October 7 and there are resignations and also many articles about this issue. However, when one looks at western countries, such as close allies of Doha, where Hamas leaders reside, there doesn't seem to be much concern.
Isn't there concern in Cairo, Riyadh or other places that they didn't have any inkling of Hamas planning "something big."
Read 19 tweets
Sep 15
🧵 I’ve been thinking about how Hamas uses schools in Gaza systematically to hide and to use as command centers in their ongoing war. I’ve also been thinking about the right of kids in Gaza to have an education free from Hamas men illegally using their classrooms.
What if the international community prioritized protecting Gaza’s children from Hamas and not letting Hamas into schools. What if they mandated UN schools have camera CCTV feeds and transparency about who enters the schools and who is employed there.
What if there was a way to have a few schools as a pilot program where a way would be found to keep Hamas men out of them. Like a civilian bubble completely free from Hamas men entering and exploiting it and using it as a shield.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 15
One of the reasons the intl community doesn’t condemn the Houthi and Hezbollah attacks on Israel strongly is because of the intl perspective that these are “non-state actors”…and thus not held to the same account as “states”. But this concept is outdated.
When “non-state” actors have more weapons than the state they are in, such as 150,000 rockets and missiles as Hezbollah does, or long range missiles as the Houthis have, they should be treated as a state.
It doesn’t make sense to judge a weak state more than a strong non-state group that is terrorizing and attacking its neighbors using the hollowed out state
Read 10 tweets
Sep 15
IDF: Sirens sounded in central Israel. Image
IDF: Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the East and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported. Image
This is yet another major escalation in attacks on Israel as has been happening since October 7. This has included the Hezbollah attacks, the Houthi attacks, including attacks on Eilat and Tel Aviv from Yemen; the April Iranian attack with missiles and drones, and now this attack today, September 15
Read 14 tweets
Sep 10
The Norwegian Refugee Council put out a statement saying "Gaza: Al-Mawasi strikes show ‘humanitarian zones’ are in name only"...but what I'd like to know is why the entire statement doesn't reference Hamas at all. Hamas is the one who sent commanders INTO THE humanitarian zone. It's Hamas activist that shows humanitarian zones are in name only. Not Israel's REACTION.Image
When I got the statement from them, I thought it's possible they didn't mention Hamas, but what about "armed groups" which is the usual Orwellian phrase used by NGOs...and it's not in there either. Nor is the Orwellian "militant." No mention at all.
This is how NGOs distort what happens in Gaza. They pretend this is a completely one sided conflict. There is no "Hamas" and no "armed men" and no "militants." It's just Israel and all Gazans are portrayed as civilians.
Read 11 tweets

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