Dec 9, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the decisive defeat and dissolution of the Syrian state which occurred on December 8 was a “direct result” of Israel’s successful recent military operations. ”This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East,” he said in a video statement. “The Assad regime is a central link in Iran’s axis of evil: this regime has fallen,” he stated, with ‘Assad regime’ being a commonly used term in the Western world to refer to the Syrian state, after its leader President Bashar Al Assad. “This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime,” the Israeli leader added, stressing that large scale Israeli attacks on Iranian forces, and on those of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, had prevented them from bolstering Syrian forces against Islamist paramilitaries, which were heavily sponsored by Israel’s strategic partner Turkey. ”This has created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East of all those who want to be free from this oppressive and tyrannical regime,” Netanyahu added, closely echoing Western and Turkish rhetoric on the issue.
The Syrian Ba’ath Party has been a leading adversary of Israeli, Turkish and Western Bloc objectives in the Middle East since the 1960s, and fought multiple wars with Israel, with particular successes gained in the 1980s as the Syrian Arab Army demonstrated greater proficiency and received new generations of Soviet armaments. Syria previously aimed large arsenals of Soviet and North Korean supplied ballistic missiles at Israel, tipping many of these with chemical weapons, which was considered to be an effective asymmetric counter to Israel’s large nuclear arsenal. Damascus’ significant support for Hezbollah and close partnership with Iran from the 2000s made it a higher priority target for Israeli interests, with Tel Aviv having as a result played a leading role in arming and training anti government jihadist militants alongside Turkey and many countries in the Western world. The fall of the Syrian government and the placing of the country’s territory under Turkish and Western influence has served to take considerable pressure off Israel’s defences, while the placing of Islamist paramilitaries in power positions them to open a second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Turkey and the Islamist paramilitaries under its sponsorship were notably predicted since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in October 2023 to potentially play a central role in supporting Tel Aviv in its ongoing conflict.
Published at militarywatchmagazine.com
Netanyahu Takes Credit for Assad’s Overthrow, Israel Seizes Golan Heights ‘Buffer Zone’
Israel has taken control of a strip of land in Syria that separated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria
December 8, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday celebrated the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by al-Qaeda-linked militants and confirmed that Israel has seized a buffer zone inside Syria that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria’s territory.
“This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Golan Heights. “The Assad regime is a central link in Iran’s axis of evil — this regime has fallen.”
Netanyahu credited Israel with setting off the process that led to the downfall of Assad. In the months leading up to the offensive launched by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Israel was waging a war against Hezbollah and ramped up airstrikes in Syria.
“This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime,” Netanyahu said. “This has created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East of all those who want to be free from this oppressive and tyrannical regime.”
The Israeli leader also said he directed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to capture the buffer zone in Syria. “Together with the Defense Minister, and with full backing from the Cabinet, I directed the IDF yesterday to take control of the buffer zone and the dominant positions near it,” he said. “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border.”
The buffer zone Israel has seized has been patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, since 1974. Netanyahu declared that the agreement establishing the buffer zone and UNDOF has now “collapsed.”
The New York Times later reported that Israeli troops had entered Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone and took control of several locations. Israel also pounded Syria with airstrikes on Sunday, targeting dozens of military and government sites. Israeli officials said the purpose of the attacks was to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of hostile forces.
There are signs that Israel had been planning to make a move on the buffer zone before the Assad government collapsed. The Associated Press reported that Israel began construction along the buffer zone, citing satellite images. After the report, UNDOF warned that Israel was committing “severe” violations of the deal with Syria that established the buffer zone.
Published atnews.antiwar.com
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