A flurry of Israeli artillery fire and a handful of missiles fired by drone hit Syria’s Quneitra Province on Monday, destroying an observation post and striking the site of an already demolished hospital.
Details on exactly what happened is unclear, and Israel is refusing all comment on the matter. Syrian state media said the strikes did material damage to the sites hit, but that there were no casualties reported.
Though Israel has been openly attacking Syria for months now, it is
generally focused on the capital city of Damascus. Hitting Quneitra,
close to the Golan Heights, largely stopped after the Israeli-armed
rebels in that area were defeated.
This raises inevitable questions about what is happening all of a sudden
in that area. So far, the Israeli military is declining comment, but in
general there will be some excuse coming out of the defense ministry in
fairly short order.
The excuses for targetting airport looking for Iranians, have been reckless. Air defences did not risk taking down planes, as Israel was taking advantage of civilian traffic at Damascus airport, trying for a repeat of downing Russian reconnaissance plane. One can assume that the practice of targetting airport was more about intimidating air travel to send a message that Syria is still not safe. But I expect that Israel no longer has a support from Sauudi Arabia, as its allies and vassals have reopened their embasses in Damascus. UAE, Bahrain and Sudan reopened embassies, Kuweit, Oman and Qatar never closed it. As these Embassies are talking reconstruction, and mire delegations are comming in— they for sure expressed their displeasure at Israel searching for Iranians around airport warehouses. So now, it is Golan Heights fishing. Israel does have a problem, however. The net result of its support for terrorists has allie ated otherwise neutral Druze Arabs. Terrorists committed attrocities Druze communities, and as a result, Druze pledged allegiance to Damascus, raised Syrian flags. Israel is now concerned about its hold over Golan. Israel was so sure Damascus. was going to fold, that it did not care about tbe feelings of Druze Arabs. Terrorists were investment in toppling Assad. Fall of Syria was to insure easy territorial gains in Lebanon — an expansion Israel sought in s number of occassions, last time in 2006. Five years later, Syria came under attack. But the net result is a setback for Israel. Not only that Syria is liberated, apart from a fully surrounded terrorist pocket and unresolved Kurd issue linked with the withdrawal of US troups, but now Druze are no longer friendly. Saudi Arabia and Gulf states are recognizing Russia’s military, economic and diplomatic influence in the region. Iraq, Iran and Russia established joint intelligence center in Baghdad. With Saudi-Russian relations in rapid rise — Iranian agenda is going the way of Pacific Pivot. Rusian tourism in region has grown at the expense of Europe. 6 million to Turkey, 3 million to Egypt. Saudi Arabia is consulting with Russia on tourism development, and especially Russian soecial tourist visas and visas linked to events. Russian Hermitage Museum is sending teams of archeologists to work on a site of an ancient nomadic culture. The site wil be part of a major tourist infrastructure of the region. Saudis will participafe in Arctic oil exploration, one abandoned by Exxon. Forty other agreements were signed over the period of end 2017 through end of 2019.
I can only conclude that targeting MSB for villany has much motr to do with his a) cutting off funds for islamic militants in the region, b) not giving control of Yemen to US, c) defunding High Negotiating Council set up by Hillary in Riyadh to squash any peace deal
in Shria, and d) rising cooperation with Russia. One can conclude that Iran has fallen low on Gulf agenda.