by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror
Russia may demand due consideration but Israel has proved time and again that it will not allow Iran to tighten its grip on Syria, even if doing so stokes regional tensions.
Russia's decision to reveal that it was the Israeli Air Force that struck the T4 air base in Syria's Homs province early Monday came as somewhat of a surprise.
One has to wonder what pushed Moscow to do
so, as it ostensibly has no interest in fueling tensions between Israel
and Syria. Moreover, while ambiguity allows Syrian President Bashar
Assad to contain the situation and save face, this type of revelation
paints Assad – and his Iranian patrons – into a corner from which they
would have to mount a potentially harsh response.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's
condemnation of the strike is also puzzling, as is Russia's logic as a
whole in this case. Other than letting the world know what they know and
underscoring that, as a superpower operating in the Middle East, Russia
deserves due consideration, the Russian motive is unclear.
The fact that the T4 air base was also the
point from which the Iranian drone that breached Israeli airspace in
February was launched, as well as reports of Iranian casualties,
presumably Iranian Revolutionary Guards personnel, proves that the
strike targeted Iranian assets and not Syrian chemical weapons
production facilities.
It is likely that Russian deployment in the
area encouraged Iran to use the base, as it assumed Israel would be
wary of carrying out a strike so close to Russian troops. The Iranians
may have also assumed that Russia would take a harsher tone with Israel
in the wake of the attack, which Lavrov did, but the situation still
begs the question – why would Russia allow Iran to operate so close to
where Russian troops are based? Can it be that Moscow actually fails to
understand that Iran is using it and placing Russian soldiers in harm's
way?
Russia's reasons aside, it is clear that
Israel is determined to continue undermining Iran's efforts to entrench
itself militarily in Syria and transfer game-changing weapons to
Hezbollah.
The location of Monday's strike, far from
Lebanon, supports the assumption that it targeted Iranian
infrastructure, but we also cannot dismiss the possibility that the
Iranians tried to transfer equipment or weapons to Hezbollah via a
remote base in an attempt to throw off Israel's suspicions and undermine
its ability to monitor the process.
Israel's determination is clear. It will
not allow Iran to tighten its grip on Syria, even if it results in a
security escalation that will come with a potentially high price.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/israel-wont-tolerate-iranian-presence-in-syria/
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