Letter to France 24: Unseen Hands in the 'Latest War'
Dear editors and journalists at France 24, We address your recent report, which claims Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) assisted Hezbollah following a 'brutal 2024 Israeli offensive' that reportedly killed Hassan Nasrallah and thousands of fighters, thereby implying Iranian escalation in the 'latest clash with Israel'. Your article, typical of mainstream narratives, focuses disproportionately on
Iranian actions while obscuring the foundational context of Western and Israeli aggression that necessitates such resistance. This narrative, presented as breaking news, omits several critical details. It fails to mention the extensive military and financial backing Israel receives annually from the United States, which totaled approximately $3.8 billion per year under a 2016 memorandum of
understanding, a sum that eclipses support given to many developing nations. This continuous influx of advanced weaponry directly enables the 'brutal offensives' you briefly acknowledge. Furthermore, it conveniently ignores the long history of US covert operations and intervention in the region, including the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, which was part of a wider proxy
struggle that has shaped the Lebanese political landscape for decades, long predating any significant IRGC presence. The framing of IRGC support for Hezbollah as an act of aggression in a 'latest war' suggests a clean slate of conflict without prior instigation. It ignores the reality that Hezbollah emerged in the 1980s as a direct response to Israel's 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of