Israel
vows to pursue Syria operations until Iran leaves
https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1913456/israel-vows-to-pursue-syria-operations-until-iran-leaves
PUBLISHED : MAY 2020 AT 07:45
WRITER: AFP
Israeli soldiers take part in a
mobile artillery exercise near the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights on April 5, 2020
JERUSALEM -
Israel will keep up its operations in Syria until its arch enemy Iran leaves,
Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday after strikes on Iranian-backed
militias and their allies killed 14 fighters.
Israel has launched hundreds of
attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, targeting government
troops, allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah.
The Jewish state rarely
confirms details of its operations in Syria but says Iran's presence in support
of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its attacks.
Bennett,
speaking to the state-owned Kan 11 television news channel, did not claim
Israeli responsibility for the latest overnight strikes on Syria.
But he said:
"Iran has nothing to do in Syria... (and) we won't stop before they leave
Syria".
·
Germany bans Hezbollah, raids mosques
·
'Wide-scale' Israeli strikes kill 11 fighters in Syria: monitor
·
Israel attacks Syria over rockets fired at Mount Hermon
The
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes
came minutes after Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli air raids over the
north of the country.
A spokesman for the US-led
coalition battling the Islamic State (IS) group said it was not responsible for
the raids in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Mayadin.
Bennett said Iran
was "trying to establish itself on the border with Israel to threaten Tel
Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa".
His allegation is not new and
has often been made by Israeli officials.
"They have to leave
Syria," Bennett said.
"This is our life we are
talking about, the life of our children, and if we allowed them to settle in
Syria... in a year we will wake up with 10,000 missiles, 20,000 missiles, that
would put us in danger.
"For them it's an
adventure, they are 1,000 kilometres away... it's their Vietnam in a way,"
Bennett said.
- 'Problems at home' –
The Israeli
defence minister said Iran should be more concerned with its own citizens and
mounting domestic problems.
"They
have enough problems at home with the coronavirus (and) the collapsing economy,"
he said.
Iran on Tuesday announced that
confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the Islamic
republic while the overall death toll from COVID-19 topped 6,000.
Iran is facing economic
hardship that worsened after US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark
nuclear clear and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran in 2018, targeting
key oil and banking sectors.
Bennett said Iran had become a
"burden" for the Assad regime.
"It used to be an asset
for the Syrians, it helped Assad deal with Daesh, but now it's a burden,"
he said, referring to IS.
The overnight attacks in Syria
were the latest in a spate of strikes on Israel's neighbour.
On Friday,
the Observatory said Israeli raids hit a missile depot in eastern Syria that
belonged to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese movement that fought a war with
Israel in 2006.
That strike
came a day after Germany designated Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist
organisation," winning applause from the Israeli government.
Israel and the United States
have long designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
And last week, Israel was
accused of hitting pro-regime positions in Syria at least three times.
Commenting on the apparent
intensification of Israeli raids, Yoram Schweitzer of Israel's Institute for
National Security Studies told AFP the Jewish state might be reacting to
increased hostile action from Iran and Hezbollah.
It is also possible that Israel
is trying to apply added pressure as its rivals endure the fallout of the
coronavirus crisis, he said.
"I don't know which one of
the two it is, but it might be a combination of the two," Schweitzer said.
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