The British newspaper "The Times" believed that the "shadow war" that is being waged in the Middle East by land, sea, air and on television screens between Israel and Iran might escalate into an all-out conflict that would drag the great powers and ignite the region with fire and chaos.

The newspaper said - in a report by its editor for diplomatic affairs, Roger Boyes - that over the course of only one week, the features of the "high-stakes" game in which the two sides were involved, were clearly evident to all, asking whether their positions and movements on the ground were a prelude to an all-out war.

In just one week, on April 10, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani praised the achievements of Iran's nuclear program during his country's celebration of the National Day of Nuclear Technology.

The next day, the lights went out at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan province, as a mysterious explosion, the second in a year, destroyed thousands of centrifuges inside the facility.

By Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was standing by the new US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, declaring that his country "will never allow Iran to possess a nuclear bomb," in an implicit allusion to his country's responsibility for the Natanz attack.

On Wednesday, with the start of Ramadan, Rouhani announced it loudly when he confirmed that Tehran would start enriching uranium to a purity of 60%, which is less than the 90% needed to manufacture nuclear weapons, but much higher than the 3.67% agreed upon with the West under the nuclear deal.

Rouhani, who was considered by Westerners at one point as a “reformer,” said, “When you commit a crime, we cut off your hand ... Nothing before doing that. "

This week witnessed what appeared to be an Iranian response to the Natanz attack, as an explosion occurred in an Israeli factory for advanced weapons that manufacture engines, missile interceptors and satellite launchers, but the Israeli authorities said - according to their official version - that the accident was the result of "routine tests."

Naval attacks

A missile launched from Syria last Thursday missed an Israeli fighter, which was about to launch a raid on a forward base run by Iran inside Syria and fell inside Israel, exploding only tens of kilometers from the nuclear research center in Dimona, even if it hit the Israeli fighter or nuclear facility - the newspaper confirms - The world would be different from what it is now at the end of the week.

On the other hand, maritime analysts counted what they believe are dozens of attacks on ships carrying Iranian oil or weapons to Syria, as more than a thousand Israeli sorties over the Syrian airspace disrupted the air and land supply routes linking Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Sabotage also hit the undersea oil pipelines last year due to preventing the unloading of Iranian oil in the Syrian Banias refinery. The Iranians believe that this action was carried out by an Israeli naval commando force from the secret "Shayetet-13" unit known as the "People of Silence".

The newspaper concludes that whether this is true or not, the ambiguity resulting from this and other operations serves Israel's position well according to the Israeli way of thinking, as the Israelis believe that the state of suspicion and suspicion developed in Iran, along with economic misery, keeps Tehran in a state of stagnation away from the war. However, this does not take into account the growing sense of humiliation felt by Iranian elites.