US Envoy Tom Barrack Surprise Visit to Baghdad: Stern Warning
US envoy Tom Barrack surprise visit to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister
Different news platforms have painted this meeting in different ways. Some news agencies say the surprise meeting was a warning that Israel will attack Iraq if Iran-backed militants interfere with a planned attack in Lebanon.
Smoke still curls over Beirut’s southern suburbs — a foreboding backdrop to a stark warning: according to Tom Barrack, envoy of the United States to Syria and Lebanon, an Israeli offensive against Lebanon is not just possible… it is imminent. (i24NEWS)
In a tense meeting earlier this week with Iraq’s Prime Minister, Barrack reportedly said that “the Israeli attack is near, and it will be broader than before,” setting the clock to “a matter of days or a few weeks.”
This warning arrives as diplomatic efforts unfold as part of a U.S.-led push to stabilize the precarious truce, Lebanon and Israel have each named civilian heads to their delegations for the upcoming ceasefire-monitoring talks in Naqoura. In Beirut, Simon Karam — a former ambassador and lawyer — will represent Lebanon — while Israel will send Uri Reznik of its National Security Council.
Yet the diplomatic window may prove fragile. Barrack cautioned that if pro-Iranian militias in Iraq respond to the looming Israeli operation, the repercussions could ignite across Syria and Lebanon — even draw in Jordan. He stressed that the coming assault “will not be only aerial,” implying a much broader military campaign.
In other words: the region stands on the brink. Diplomacy and ordinary life walk a razor’s edge — but according to Washington’s envoy: war could erupt in a matter of days.
