Syria, Israel and Russia tacitly agree to curb Iran in Syria: Israeli Army
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Wednesday, Israeli army revealed an implicit understanding among Syria, Russia and Israel to limit Iran’s influence in Syria.
The Israeli army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, said the renewal of coordination with Russia in the Syrian arena has a role in improving Israel’s national security.
“There are some people in the Israeli General Staff who are with supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime in order to spread his rule over all of Syria, in order to get rid of the Iranian presence near its border, or at least, to reduce it,” he added.
In its annual report yesterday, to assess the security situation for 2022, the Israeli army said “Israel’s national security challenges on the northern front – Syria and Lebanon, witnessed a remarkable improvement during 2021, after years of tension.”
The report, published by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, expected that the front with Syria would remain calm next year, unless there was a sudden escalation.
Convergence of interests
Ron Ben-Yishai, a military analyst, revealed that there is even a political effort to recruit Washington to help Assad rebuild his country.
The mobilization comes “because the Syrian president is upset with the Iranian presence that hinders the future plans of his regime and his Russian ally,” according to Ben Yishai, a commentator for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
“The interests of Assad, Putin and Israel began to meet recently over reducing the Iranian influence,” the military expert said.
Ben Yishai believed that “this would ensure that there is no sudden escalation for Israel on the southern front.”
The expert attributed the common interests to that “the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who supports him, want to impose political stability and enhance the regime’s control in most of Syria in order to begin the restoration of the country.”
Iran’s military activities in Syria have become “discontented with the Assad regime because it undermines its effort to impose its control over all of Syria,” according to Ben Yishai.
He believes that Iran’s establishment destabilizes Assad’s governance and sovereignty in his country. As a result, he and the Russians are realizing, now, more than ever, the importance of the frequent Israeli attacks on Iranian forces. And while these attacks deter possible investors, Putin, who the Iranians compete with financially and undermine the stability in Syria.
Press reports spoke of tensions and disagreements between the Syrian government and the commander of the Quds Force in Syria, Mustafa Jawad Ghafari, as a result of the latter’s activities on the Syrian territory, and the government’s dissatisfaction with them.
Two days ago, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement, in which it responded to the news that spread about a dispute between al-Assad and the Iranian military representative in Syria.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, “The news fabrication of the Zionist media and some other countries is not something new and has a very different depth and dimension on different levels.”
Intense air strikes
The new coordination of the Israeli government with Russia resulted in the continuation of freedom of movement in the Syrian arena, and consequently a qualitative increase in the Israeli strikes against the Iranian presence, where seven attacks have been recently recorded in one month.
On October 22, the Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the western Russian resort of Sochi and they discussed the situation in Syria and the Iranian nuclear issue.
Today in the early morning, Israel fired two missiles from the Golan Heights towards an empty building, south of Damascus, said the pro-state news agency SANA.
Over the past years, Israel has launched hundreds of raids on Syria with the aim of preventing the military establishment of armed factions loyal to Iran on the Syrian territory, according to press reports.
Israel rarely confirms the implementation of these strikes in Syria, but it reiterates that it will continue confronting what it describes as Iran’s attempts to establish its military presence there.