Amos Harel/Haaretz: Israel’s Battle With Iran in Syria Is Back in High Gear and Far From Over تحليل من الهآرتس بقلم عاموس هاريل: عودة المعرك الإسرائيلية مع إيران في سوريا وبوتيرة متصاعدة
Analysis/Israel’s Battle With Iran in Syria Is Back in High Gear and Far From Over تحليل من الهآرتس بقلم عاموس هاريل: عودة المعرك الإسرائيلية مع إيران في سوريا وبوتيرة متصاعدة
Amos Harel/Haaretz/January 21/19
Recent developments cast Israel’s self-aggrandizement regarding military action against Tehran in Syria in a dubious light.
Israel’s conflict with Iran, playing out in Syria, is back in high gear. That is what Sunday’s events on the Syrian-Israeli border mean.
There was a strike on Damascus, then, unusually, a surface-to-surface missile was shot from Syria toward Israeli territory and was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery. Following this, the air force mounted another attack during the night, hitting a number of Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ targets in Syria.
These recent developments cast the self-aggrandizement of the Israeli leadership, regarding their achievements in Syria against Iran, in a dubious light.
The Israeli army can claim considerable gains in its efforts to block Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria, and the arms-smuggling to Hezbollah in Lebanon via Syrian territory. The commander of the Al Quds Brigade in the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, apparently planned for his moves in Syria to advance much faster, but was thwarted by the Israeli activity.
But contrary to the erroneous impression one might get from articles in the press and official Israeli statements over the past few weeks, the story is far from over.
The seasoned general has been fighting Israel for decades and doesn’t seem to have abandoned his efforts. After the Iranians were bruised in the clash between the parties last May, Soleimani rethought his tactics and waited for the right time to resume the battle.
Now, as the Assad regime stabilizes its control over Syria, the struggle is to determine the rules of engagement on the northern front. Iran would like to continue smuggling arms to Hezbollah while building army bases and deploying weapons systems in Syria.
Israel wants to foil that. The extraordinary fact that a mid-range surface-to-surface missile was fired from Syria toward Israel does not attest that Iran is winning the battle. However, it does show that the conflict is far from over.
All this would probably have happened in any case. However, it is possible that the recent Israeli statements hastened the process to some degree.
It began with a statement by the outgoing chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, to the New York Times about the thousands of Iranian targets that the air force has attacked in recent years. It continued with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to publicly take responsibility for the strike near Damascus about 10 days ago. The security brass took no part in the decision to break Israel’s policy of ambiguity, and they were not pleased by it.
The Israel Defense Forces formally cast the responsibility for the rocket shot at Israel Sunday on the Revolutionary Guards. Following the rocket fire, a number of military sites affiliated with Iran around Damascus were bombed – arms depots, a training camp and an intelligence camp. Several Syrian aerial defense batteries that had fired missiles toward Israeli jets were also bombed and sustained damage.
On Monday morning, Russia announced that four Syrian soldiers had been killed in the attack.
The Israeli raid, yet again, exposed the false promises Moscow made just six months ago. Then, in the context of Assad’s forces regaining the Syrian Golan from the rebels, Russia promised Israel (in exchange for not intervening on behalf of the rebels) to keep Iranian forces far away from the Syrian-Israeli border (various figures were discussed: 60 kilometers, 70, up to 100).
In time, it turned out that the Russian promise didn’t encompass the area of the capital, Damascus, nor were they exactly keeping their word in the Golan. When the Assad regime returned to southern Syria, the Israeli government presented the accord with Russia as a major achievement. Now, for some reason, Israel is silent on the matter.
On Monday morning, Russia announced that four Syrian soldiers had been killed in the attack.
The Israeli raid, yet again, exposed the false promises Moscow made just six months ago. Then, in the context of Assad’s forces regaining the Syrian Golan from the rebels, Russia promised Israel (in exchange for not intervening on behalf of the rebels) to keep Iranian forces far away from the Syrian-Israeli border (various figures were discussed: 60 kilometers, 70, up to 100). In time, it turned out that the Russian promise didn’t encompass the area of the capital, Damascus, nor were they exactly keeping their word in the Golan. When the Assad regime returned to southern Syria, the Israeli government presented the accord with Russia as a major achievement. Now, for some reason, Israel is silent on the matter.
Deadly Israeli Strikes on Iranian Military Targets in Syria
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 21 January, 2019/Israeli air strikes and ground-to-ground missiles that hit Iranian and Syrian targets near Damascus in the early hours of Monday killed at least 11 fighters including two Syrians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. According to the war monitor, the bombardment hit the targets around Damascus as well as near a military airport to the south of the capital. Syrian military air defenses destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs during the Israeli air strikes, Russia’s defense control center was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. But the military center said that the air strikes killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded six. In an extraordinary statement, the Israeli military confirmed early Monday that it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria. The statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defenses intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of the airport raid. “We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said, warning the Syrian army “against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighboring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war. On Sunday, Syrian state media said air defenses repelled an Israeli air raid near the international airport south of Damascus. State TV said Syria’s air defenses “prevented” the attack from achieving its goals. It said Israel targeted six missiles on an area near Damascus International Airport, of which five were shot down and one diverted to nearby empty farmland.
Israel, Iran Exchange Threats as Syria Tensions Flare
Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 21 January, 2019/Tel Aviv and Tehran exchanged threats on Monday after Israeli warplanes pounded Iranian targets in Syria in response to a rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel. Speaking at a dedicating ceremony for a new airport, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel won’t “allow such acts of aggression to go unanswered.” Netanyahu vowed that “whoever tries to harm us, we will harm them. Whoever threatens to destroy us, will bear the full responsibility.”It was Netanyahu’s first acknowledgment of Israel’s most severe strike in Syria in nearly a year. The Israeli military said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards targets that its jets struck in Syria included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 were killed in the strikes. Netanyahu’s threats came after chief of the Iranian Air Force Gen. Aziz Nassirzadeh said his forces are “impatient and ready” to fight Israel in order to destroy it. A news website affiliated with Iran’s state television, YJC.ir, quoted Nassirzadeh as saying that the Air Force’s “young generation are impatient and ready for a fight against the Zionist regime to wipe it off the Earth.” Nassirzadeh spoke during a visit to the Air Force’s academy after the pre-dawn Israeli strikes. On Sunday, Iranian forces fired toward Israel a surface-to-surface rocket that was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system over a ski resort in the Golan Heights. That followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.
