Coronavirus freezes military actions in the region, but escalates intelligence activities – Military expert

Ramallah – North-Press Agency

Ahmad Ismail

On Sunday, military expert and retired Lebanese Major General Amin Hoteit said that the general situation does not allow any large-scale military action by any side, because the world is now paying major attention to combating coronavirus.

In an interview with North-Press, Hoteit said that combating coronavirus does not mean the cessation of limited or defensive military operations, or the continuation of monitoring and controlling systems in the region by all parties – Iran, Israel, Russia, the Syrian government, Turkey, the Syrian armed opposition and others.

"Intelligence and security activity is constant and will remain, and some parties will even take advantage of the lockdown in the region to infiltrate and find gaps in the other side," he said.

The retired Maj. Gen. believes that everyone in the field will be cautious and alert, so that none of them is surprised by the other party, but in light of the spread of coronavirus, it is unlikely that any party would initiate military action or a widespread or calculated escalation.

Hoteit differentiates between field military action and security intelligence work. Military action is directly affected by the spread of coronavirus, and it tries to maintain a kind of stability and achieve an "emergency truce." Contrary to this, intelligence and security work apparatuses may exploit the world's preoccupation with the coronavirus epidemic in order to expand and collect information about their enemies.