Stealth Occupation : Iran in Syria

"Yesterday we dealt serious blows to the Iranian and Syrian forces."
"We made it unequivocally clear to everyone that our rules of action have not changed one bit. We will continue to strike at every attempt to strike at us."
"This has been our policy and it will remain our policy."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"They, and we, know what we hit and it will take them some time for them to digest, understand and ask how Israel knew how to hit those sites."
"These were concealed sites and we have intelligence agencies and the ability to know everything that is going on there and yesterday we proved that."
Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz

"We do not just talk, we act."
"I think that also the Syrians now understand well that the fact that they are hosting the Iranians on Syrian soil harms them."
Israeli Cabinet Minister Yoav Galant

Israeli solders taking positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the border with Syria. Picture: AFP

"[The assertions by Israel regarding the downed Iranian drone] are too ridiculous to be addressed." 

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has advisory presence in Syria at the request of the country's legitimate and constitutional government."

"The government and army of Syria as an independent country have a legitimate right to defend (the country's) territorial integrity and counter any type of foreign aggression."

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi

"[There are 82,000 fighters] directly under Iranian authority in Syria [including 3,000 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, 9,000 members of Hezbollah and 10,000 members of] violent Shiia militias recruited from across the Mideast, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"[Iran] directly commands [60,000 local Syrian fighters]."

"These are hard facts that cannot be disputed. Iran's military is actively training these militant extremists and is using Syria as its strategic base."

"[Iran is] also building missile factories in Syria. [Israel's attitude toward its northern border is that] we can no longer distinguish between Iran and Syria."

"The Iranians themselves claim that ISIS in Syria is on the run. So why does Iran keep recruiting these extremists to be killed in the battlefields of Syria? Why is Iran building bases to house these fighters for the long run? The answer is clear: to further destabilize Syria and our region, to further threaten Israel and to further terrorize the entire free world."

"In 2014, seventeen percent of Iran's government spending went to its military expenditure. This past year, in 2017, this number ballooned to twenty-two percent. That's $23 billion spent on missiles, arms and other weapons of war."

"Iran has nearly doubled its trade with Europe this year ... this is a mistake. While you are making a profit, Iran is building an empire."

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon

A picture taken in the northern Israeli Kibbutz of Harduf on February 10, 2018, shows the remains of an Israel F16 that crashed after coming under fire by Syrian air defences during attacks against "Iranian targets" in the war-torn country (AFP Photo/Jack GUEZ)

Iran's infamous bellicosity, never hesitating to publicly announce its intentions to annihilate Israel in and of itself should be recognized of its intention to succeed in its stated aspiration. Any nation that has been so frequently and so pointedly threatened would be on guard, just as Israel is. The seven-year Syrian civil war saw the incursion of Iran's proxy militia Hezbollah and commanders of the Islamic Republican Guard aiding the Syrian military in its dedicated plan to punish the 'terrorists' who dare challenge Bashar al-Assad's Alawite rule over the majority Sunni Syrians through mass slaughter.

Despite the discomfort at the close proximity of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters to the Israeli border Israel has confined its reactions through subdued military activity to warning Syria and Iran that it will not tolerate weapons stockpiles being transferred to Hezbollah and Hamas. Israeli humint (human intelligence) has always been second to none. Alerted to weapons transports on a number of occasions, Israeli jets have been tasked with destroying those transports and the allied depots.

Air raid sirens had gone off in Israel in the early hours of the morning following the UAV interception and raids. Picture: AFP/Jack GuezSource:AFP

On the occasion of Iran feeling confident enough to send a drone over Israeli airspace for intelligence gathering from a base in Syria close to the historic city of Palmyra, the reaction was swift once a helicopter was dispatched to shoot the drone down. A mission went out with orders to destroy the base from whence it came, along with a number of other bases for good measure. A dozen additional jets were sent on a mission to continue the assaults of Syrian and Iranian targets in response to one of the Israeli jets downed by anti-aircraft missiles.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war and the regime's violent war on its own civilian population in 2011, Israel has attempted to remain circumspect in its dealings with hostile Syria whose threats have never quite managed to measure up to its actions against Israel. Syrians rebelling against the regime who have been wounded in regime attacks have been treated in field hospitals set up by Israeli medics, while Syrian civilians requiring more intensive care have found it in Israeli hospitals treating children.

Increasingly, however, the signs of Iran's intentions to make a permanent base for itself on the border between Israel and Syria have been alarmingly provocative. The purpose of such a base is more than obvious, as a launching point into Israel by both Hezbollah and Iran. Israeli's aerial assaults spoke to the Jewish nation's intentions in response to the message received by the Iranian presence too close for comfort and forwarding a message for delivery to the sender. At the same time reminding them they're a bit premature in celebration.

Hezbollah supporters rally near Fatima's Gate in Kfar Kila on the Lebanese border with Israel on February 10, 2018 to celebrate the crashing of an Israeli F16 fighter jet by Syrian air defences (AFP Photo/Ali DIA)

Labels: Conflict, Iran, Israel, Security, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, February 13, 2018