THE HILL | Published December 11, 2024
Despite toxic Western efforts to compromise partners and protect enemies, a historic process is underway in both the Middle East and Europe. Leadership is about meeting that moment and making history, not avoiding it.
At the height of the Syrian Civil War, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should save Syria’s President Bashar Assad. The West pursued this course of action and abandoned the Syrian Revolution. The consequences of this failed policy were felt from Europe to the Middle East to the Sahel region of Africa.
Netanyahu’s reasoning was based on two assumptions. First, Russia’s presence in Syria could contain or reduce Iran’s influence over a weakened Assad. Second, a weakened Assad was preferable to the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (or Islamists) forming a government in Damascus. To say that his assessment of Moscow was incorrect is an understatement.
Russia’s presence did not contain or reduce Iran’s influence in Syria but amplified it. Weapons smuggled from Iraq through the Syrian desert still made it to Lebanon, as did armaments that landed at air bases and ports operated by the Russians and Assad.
Hezbollah and other Iranian mercenaries also gained valuable combat experience serving as infantry while Russia and Assad reduced Syria to rubble, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and displacing millions more.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Israeli warplanes pound Syria as troops reportedly advance deeper into the country
Israel carried out a series of airstrikes into Syria overnight. They are the most intense aerial campaign into Syria in years but also particularly after the fall of the government of Bashar Assad.
AP NEWS | Published December 11, 2024
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria’s navy.
Israel acknowledged pushing into a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad. But it remained unclear if Israeli soldiers had gone beyond that area, which was established more than 50 years ago. Israel denied that it was advancing on the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that it carried out more than 350 strikes in Syria over the last 48 hours, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country to stop them from falling into the hands of extremists.
The targets included air defense systems, military airfields, missile depots and dozens of weapons production sites in Damascus and other cities. Associated Press reporters in the capital heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday morning
Israeli missile ships also simultaneously struck two Syrian navy facilities, where the military said 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked. Israel did not specify how many vessels it struck, but the private security firm Ambrey said it had seen evidence that at least six Soviet-era missile ships were hit.
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SOURCE: www.apnews.com
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