Israeli Official: Syria Regime Change Needed to Harm Iran

Just Do Whatever Harms Iran, Adviser Urges

A top figure in Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Sima Shine, has issued a statement today urging that Israel unconditionally back regime change in Syria, no matter who replaces President Bashar Assad, simply to harm Iran.

“Israel’s main strategic threat is Iran, not Syria,” Shine declared, insisting that Israel should base all strategic policies on “what harms Iran and what serves Israel’s agenda of confronting it.”

Since Assad is an ally of Iran, Shine reasoned, regime change in Syria is vital, and if Assad survived weakened by the war that would be even worse because he’d be even more dependent on Iran.

Shine even conceded that this might mean handing Syria over to the al-Qaeda backed jihadist rebels, saying that there were “no good options” on Syria but that anything that really stuck it to Iran must be preferable by default.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.