Washington's bias a major cause of rising tensions in the Middle East

The United States and some of its major European allies have urged Iran to refrain from taking retaliatory action against Israel for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, political leader of Hamas, in Teheran on July 31, about four months after an Israeli attack on Iran's consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1.

But it's time these Western leaders accepted that their double standard and hypocrisy are the major cause of the escalating hostilities and tensions in the Middle East.

Most Western leaders have been reiterating over the past 10 months that they are committed to helping Israel to safeguard its security and that Israel has the right to not only defend itself but also take retaliatory action against Hamas for the Oct 7 attacks despite the brutal Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip claiming the lives of some 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Yet none of the Western leaders has ever said that Iran has the right to self-defense in the face of Israeli attacks and none has ever mentioned that they are committed to guaranteeing the security of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

While most of the UN Security Council members condemned Haniyeh's assassination, the representatives of the US and the United Kingdom exposed their bias against Iran by blaming Teheran for the killing.

No wonder Iran's new President Masoud Pezeshkian rebuffed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's warning of "a serious risk of miscalculation" on Tuesday, asserting that "a punitive response to an aggressor is a right of nations and a solution for stopping crimes and aggression".

It's hard to recall any restraint exercised by the US when it was attacked on Sept 11, 2001.Instead, it launched a full-scale war against Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving Afghanistan only after a 20-year-long occupation despite the fact that no Afghan national was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Rather than putting pressure on the Israeli government to restrain itself, especially in the wake of Haniyeh's assassination, the US has been sending the wrong signals, encouraging Israel to launch more reckless and devastating actions.

The wrong signals include the latest Pentagon instruction to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail and position itself close to the coastline of Iran. The US has also ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine into the region while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has been stationed in the Gulf of Oman. The US has also deployed many F-22 and F-35 fighter jets in the region.

To make matters worse, on Tuesday, the US State Department announced the approval of $20 billion worth of arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets, advanced air-to-air missiles, tank ammunition, high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles.

The timing of the announcement is especially shocking, because multiple reports show that US-made weapons are being used by Israel in the attacks on schools in Gaza in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict.

The US message is clear: It will have Israel's back no matter how many such assassinations are carried out, how brutally Palestinian civilians are massacred, and how openly Israel violates the Geneva Conventions.

It's little wonder that Hamas has refused to participate in the cease-fire talks proposed for this week by the US, Egypt and Qatar. It insisted that talks be held based on a May 31 ceasefire plan announced by US President Joe Biden, the framework laid out by mediators Qatar and Egypt on May 6, and UN Security Council Resolution 2735. Incidentally, Biden had lied and misled the world when he said the May 31 plan was Israel's "comprehensive new proposal", because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never acknowledged giving such a proposal.

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that Washington aims "to turn the temperature down" in the Middle East. But she should know that the US' biased policy in the Middle East, its hypocrisy and double standard are a major stumbling block to peace and stability in the region.

The author is chief of China Daily EU Bureau based in Brussels.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn