"The promotion of these capabilities is carried out as a project shared with the Syrian army and possibly even with the aim of enabling independent Iranian operation of the aerial defense systems from within parts of Syria," the source said. However, the source told Newsweek that over the course of "the last two years" Iran has shifted its strategy, "promoting the deployment of aerial defense capabilities on its behalf in Syria at a cost of tens of millions of dollars in order to deal with the Israeli airstrikes."
Israeli leadership, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, has also occasionally praised such operations and the Israel Defense Forces has acknowledged certain operations in the past. While Israel routinely neither confirms nor denies responsibility for the air campaign informally referred to in the country as "the war between wars," Syria has regularly blamed Israel for them and a multitude of international media reports, including from Newsweek, have cited Israel's involvement in this effort. Such strikes have targeted "Iranian military assets and interests in the Syrian territory that threaten Israel," according to the source. The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence shared with Newsweek, recalled how Israeli airstrikes in Syria began in late 2017 as Iranian forces began to entrench themselves in the allied country. Iran has pursued the establishment of a comprehensive aerial defense network in Syria by sending equipment and personnel to the war-ravaged Arab nation in a project Israel has sought to thwart through repeated airstrikes, an intelligence source from a nation allied with the United States told Newsweek.
0 kommentar(er)
