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Tensions Iran-États-Unis: vers un embrasement du Moyen-Orient? (Iran-US tensions: toward a Middle East conflagration?)
On 20 January 2020, The Canadian Jewish News published a French interview, Tensions Iran-États-Unis: vers un embrasement du Moyen-Orient?, by Elias Levy. The speaker is Meir Masri, whom the paper calls an Israeli geopolitics analyst, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a commentator for the Israeli channel i24NEWS. The interview comes days after the United States killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, then the commander of the Quds Force, the foreign arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. An American family should care because Levy asks a direct question: would pulling US troops out of Iraq be a major setback for Israel? Masri's answer is no, not for the threat he names.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. The rating covers Meir Masri's statements in a signed interview with The Canadian Jewish News: his account of the US base network around Iran, and his judgment that Israel did not necessarily need American troops in Iraq to meet one specific missile threat. He is an Israeli analyst and i24NEWS commentator speaking in his own words.
What the article says
Levy asks whether a US withdrawal from Iraq would be a major reverse for Israel. Masri says reports of an imminent American withdrawal were denied by the White House. He says the Iraqi parliament recommended that Baghdad ask the United States to leave, but that the recommendation did not bind the Iraqi government. He says the parliament's text wanted US troops out so Iraq would not be dragged into a future US-Iran fight, not out of solidarity with Iran. He says the Iraqi government, which had asked the Americans in to fight the Islamic State, had not said it wanted those troops to leave.
On Israel, he narrows the danger. He says the only Iranian threat from Iraq at that stage would be Tehran placing ballistic-missile launch sites there. He then says Israel does not necessarily need Americans on the ground in Iraq to face that threat.
"Pour faire face à cette menace, j'estime qu'Israël n'a pas nécessairement besoin que les Américains soient militairement présents en Irak."
Meir Masri, interviewed by Elias Levy, The Canadian Jewish News, 20 January 2020. In English: to meet that threat, he does not think Israel necessarily needs the Americans to be militarily present in Iraq.
Earlier in the same interview he paints a different picture of the wider region. He says American power around Iran is heavy and lasting. He says the United States has about sixty military bases in about fifteen countries there, and that fourteen of Iran's fifteen neighbors are tied to the Americans by a base, a military-assistance deal, or NATO membership. He names Armenia as the one neighbor where, he says, the Americans are not present. Those figures are his, given in this interview. They are not a table from the Pentagon.
The rest of the interview is about Iranian threats after Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Palestinian politics. Hezbollah is the Lebanese armed group backed by Iran. Masri says he does not expect Iran to open a northern war with Israel through Hezbollah or through militias in Syria. That is his forecast.
What other reporting and posts add
What American parents were told that week. USA Today published a guide for parents the same month: "there is no active draft," "It would take an act of Congress signed into law by the president," and "the likelihood of a draft is astronomically small." USA Today, 6 January 2020. (capture: twitter/t11__v132.md) A father writing in The Hechinger Report recalled believing "Iran would likely respond with violence" and deciding what his son should hear about war. The Hechinger Report, 8 January 2020. (capture: twitter/t10__v118.md)
How that changed by 2026. In December 2025, Congress made Selective Service registration automatic for men 18 to 26, starting December 2026, as part of the annual defense law (the NDAA). Military Times: "Automatic registration into Selective Service was mandated in December 2025, when President Donald Trump signed into law the fiscal year 2026 NDAA." Registration is the first step; an actual draft would still need a new act of Congress. @MilitaryTimes, 8 April 2026. (capture: twitter/t15__v169.md)
Masri's point about US troops and Israel, in 2026. In the 2026 war Israel's Channel 12 was reported as saying Israel would support a US ground operation in Iran "with airstrikes, intelligence, and airpower, but not infantry." X trend, 30 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v148.md)
What it shows
An Israeli analyst described, in 2020, the ring of American power around Iran: about sixty bases in about fifteen countries, and fourteen of Iran's fifteen neighbors tied to Washington. That is the platform from which a ground war is launched. The same month, American parents were told the chance of a draft was "astronomically small." By December 2025 Congress had made Selective Service registration automatic for men 18 to 26, and in the 2026 war Israel's Channel 12 reported that Israel would back a US ground operation with airstrikes and intelligence, "but not infantry." See A Long Pattern and Reserves, Guard, and the Draft.
Check it yourself
Why a 2020 interview matters in 2026: on 3 January 2020 a US drone strike in Baghdad killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran's top general abroad, and for a few weeks Americans feared a full war with Iran. Many of the arguments in the 2026 war, about US troops in Iraq and whether Israel needs American soldiers nearby, were first rehearsed then. The Canadian Jewish News is a Toronto-based Jewish newspaper; this interview is in French, with Meir Masri, an Israeli analyst. The English title is roughly "Iran-US tensions: toward a Middle East conflagration?"
Research captures: twitter/t11__v132.md, twitter/t10__v118.md, twitter/t15__v169.md, twitter/t13__v148.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26