The chief of the Hezbollah terror group on Saturday warned it could respond to Israeli airstrikes in Syria targeting mainly Iranian positions and what Israel says are weapons shipments.
Israel moved quickly Thursday to fill the coming power vacuum after President Trump said U.S. troops were being withdrawn from Syria, vowing to ramp up its own military campaign against Iranian-backed proxy groups in the country — a clear sign that the war between Jerusalem and Tehran will continue with or without U.S. involvement.
The U.S. State Department recently published an unprecedented report detailing the financial resources Iran invests in destabilizing the Middle East.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem addressed the UN General Assembly on Saturday with a focus on what the regime intends to do about the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. He declared that Damascus aims to recapture the territory from Israel after Syrian regime forces have retaken areas opposite the Israeli border during a recent Russian-backed offensive.
Russia has worked against U.S. interests in Ukraine, Syria, and in other hot spots across the globe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a blistering takedown of Moscow that comes on the eve of a key United Nations summit in New York City.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, said Wednesday that Israel must stop its ‘intolerable’ attacks in Syria. His comments came after an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian base in Latakia, during which a Russian spy plane was accidentally shot down by soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad.
With Bashar Assad and his Russian allies on the verge of victory in Syria’s civil war, the Trump administration is facing new pressure to respond forcefully and prevent a bloodbath of historic proportions — but analysts say the U.S. has virtually no good options, as seven years of muddy American policy toward Syria has left Moscow holding all the cards.
Israel considered military intervention in the Syrian civil war before Russia stepped in to aid President Bashar Assad, senior officials admitted Wednesday.
The Russian government is warning of a staged gas attack by Syrian rebels in Idlib. Experts doubt the validity of that information, however, and see the move as a telltale sign of desperation in Moscow.
Iran has signed a deal to rebuild Syria’s armed forces, which have been depleted by more than seven years civil war, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the United States that his country would like Iranian forces to withdraw from Syria but cannot force them out, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said on Wednesday, despite Israeli calls for Iran to leave immediately.
The Syrian government regained control of the frontier with the Israel’s Golan Heights for the first time in seven years on Monday, after Islamic State-linked militants gave up their last pocket of territory in the area.
Moscow is concerned by a possible military escalation between Iran and Israel and is doing everything possible to prevent a conflict between them, Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan said in an interview with Russian daily Kommersant on Wednesday.
Israel and Russia have been in talks regarding the imminent return of Syrian regime forces to the border region on the Golan Heights, reportedly with a view to reestablishing demarcation lines drawn up in 1974.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Israel will not seek to unseat Syrian dictator Bashar Assad from power, while urging Moscow to remove Iranian troops from the country, according to an Israeli official.
French President Emmanuel Macron and President Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels have reportedly agreed on a plan to push Middle East allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to start talks on way to put an end to Syria’s seven-year civil war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday, the latest in a series of frequent summits between the two amid persistent tensions over the presence of Iran-backed fighters in Syria.
It was yet another sign that the Syrian civil war, with a possible Iranian military presence, has arrived on Israel’s doorstep.
The Syrian Civil War, which has lasted more than seven years, has claimed the lives of at least 500,000 people, displaced more than 12 million from their homes and cost others, too many to count, their arms and legs, each victim lost in the fog of war.
Russia on Thursday blocked the UN Security Council from adopting a statement on the situation in southwestern Syria, where rebels are under intense bombardment, diplomats said after an urgent meeting requested by Sweden and Kuwait.