Israeli media are playing up government concerns about the disbanding of Syria’s Eighth Brigade, a militia that has been working with the Syrian military in the ongoing war, and was bankrolled and armed by Russia.
The Eighth Brigade had about 10,000 fighters, mostly former rebels looking to take a Russian paycheck. The faction was involved in fighting against other rebel groups in south Syria, not far from the Israeli-occupied Golan.
Israel has made no bones about its problems with all pro-Syria factions, but is now concerned that the Eighth Brigade being disbanded opens the door for Iran to replace them in the area. This is in spite of there being no evidence this will happen.
Indeed, the whole reason Russia is disbanding the brigade is because they brokered a peace deal in the south, so the fighters aren’t needed. It is unlikely these fighters will be replaced at all.
There is no sign Israel had a positive relationship with the Russian-funded group, and they’ve got problems with Russia’s role in Syria, and Russia has loudly objected to repeated Israeli attacks.
So suddenly, the concern is a mythical Iranian surge, underscoring that Israeli officials can make anything about Iran.
With hope, Russia and Syria are simply moving this militia out of harms way in order to bring in Russian TOS-1, TOS-2 Heavy flamethrower systems, S-400s and Iranian troops to liberate the Golan.
Russia and Iran have promised to protect Syria’s territorial integrity for the foreseeable future.
They must surely realize that task will be much more difficult with that rogue state Israel causing trouble in the south every day and ALWAYS looking to steal more land.
I like your hope/dream and hate to wake us up. It’s not likely Russia and/or Iran will take the Golan Heights from Israel by force. Israel is the super power in the Middle East. If that’s not enough, Israel can also drag the US into a devastating war that may trigger WWIII and the end of civilization altogether.
Agree. Plus Russia and Iran do not need such distraction — as of this point there are more important things to be accomplished.
US is ramping up Syrian Kurds mischief, while it looks like UK and US are making a major push to establish HTS as de-facto ruler of Idlib. Russia and Turkey in the last round accomplished two things. Blocked path to HTS induced refugee flow into Turkey, and pushing HTS and its militia allies away from two major highways, removing HTS artillery threatening Aleppo airport. Then Turkey peeled off several militias away from HTS. US under Biden targeted the leaders of one “defecting” group, clearly helping HTS punish “defectors”.
Now, tine for another round on Idlib. Let us see how this progresses.
Acting has started. Turkey accusing US Damascus and Russia for “protecting” Kurds militias, and instability in Idlib where HTS killed two Turkish soldiers. Whatever Erdogan and Putin agreed, we will soon see.
But it will be a pushback against Biden-Johnson plan for destabilizing Syria.
Israel has the BOMB, and assuredly they have the technology to develop small tactical nukes. May have already used them.
Note UN Resolution 181 describes the only internationally recognized boundries of the Jewish State. This remains the sole basis for a lasting peace.
“and Russia has loudly objected to repeated Israeli attacks.”
Our definitions of loudly differ.
One less ‘existential threat’ to Israel, right?
Long ago Israel slipped into our future, that of warmongering slugs. The U.S. and Israel are twins. Really.
A word of caution. I feel that some comments don’t seem interested in constructive dialogue or in supporting antiwar views. Some war promoters seem to troll this site attempting to trigger or set traps in order to “cancel” this forum.