Tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers will stage a mock 10-day war against the Hezbollah terrorist group in northern Israel beginning Tuesday, marking the IDF’s largest exercise in nearly 20 years, the army announced Monday, amid tensions over growing Iranian influence in Syria and Lebanon.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on a PR offensive this week to counter Israeli warnings that a ceasefire imposed by Moscow in Syria is enabling Iran and its terror proxy, Hezbollah, to amass fighters and weapons near the Jewish state’s northern border in preparation for a future war.
Israel’s intensive diplomatic campaign in recent weeks, which included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, trips by senior Israeli defense officials to the United States and more, comes on the heels of updated situation assessments within the defense establishment suggesting that if nothing is done, the weapon manufacturing facilities Iran is building in Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s neighbors to the north, will become operational in the foreseeable future.
Russia has reportedly stationed its advanced S-400 anti-missile defense system near an Iranian arms factory in Syria, which allegedly manufactures long-range guided missiles for Hezbollah to use against Israel.
US officials have agreed to let Iranian-backed militias take up positions in Syria less than ten kilometers from the Israeli Golan Heights, the Arabic daily Asharq Al Awsat reported Thursday.
Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears to be still alive, a top US military commander said Thursday, contradicting Russia’s claims that it probably killed the top counterterror target months ago.
The US and Israel are ‘of the same mind’ when it comes to opposition to any Iranian military presence in Syria, US Ambassador David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview this week.
The Obama administration likely hid information about Iran illicitly ferrying militants into Syria on commercial aircraft in order to promote the landmark nuclear deal and foster multi-billion dollar business deals with Tehran’s state-controlled airline sector, according to lawmakers and other sources familiar with the matter.
Iraq still faces tough military battles and hard political choices in the wake of the surprisingly quick advance over the weekend to oust Islamic State militants from the northern city of Tal Afar.
A senior Israeli official has issued a warning to Russia that the Israeli military will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus if Russia allows Iran to make military advances in Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday that Iran is building sites to produce precision guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon.
Hezbollah has captured much of an Islamic State pocket on Syria’s side of the border with Lebanon in a joint offensive with the Syrian army, its leader said on Thursday.
Netanyahu told Putin that Iran’s takeover of the Middle East and their stronghold in Syria present a threat to Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world.
New photographs obtained by congressional leaders show Iran shipping militant soldiers to Syria on commercial airline flights, a move that violates the landmark nuclear agreement and has sparked calls from U.S. lawmakers for a formal investigation by the Trump administration, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Thousands of Iranian-backed fighters in Syria’s central desert region are advancing east, bringing Tehran closer to its goal of securing a corridor from its border, through Iraq and all the way to the Mediterranean and providing it unhindered land access to its allies in Syria and Lebanon for the first time.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to discuss the Iranian presence in Syria when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said Tuesday.
Syriac Orthodox Christians in the northeastern city of Hasakeh celebrated on Saturday the inauguration of Archbishop Maurice Amseeh, giving the community a bishop for the first time in four years, since the last one left the country.
Growing Israeli concern over Iran gaining an ever increasing foothold in Syria has been impossible to miss lately, as evidenced by the prime minister’s statements along those lines. Mossad Director Yossi Cohen also alerted the government to the fact that Iran’s influence in Syria in particular and the region in general is growing stronger by the day.
Lebanese troops launched an offensive against the Islamic State (IS) group Saturday close to the Syrian border where the extremists have been active for several years.
A report on Channel 2 on August 15 provided images of a military construction site from an Israeli satellite near Qalaat Marqab. The report said this is likely a factory to build long-range missiles. The area the factory is constructed in near the border of the Tartus and Latakia governorates is one that is closely linked to other military facilities of the Syrian regime and its allies. These include a Russian naval base at Tartus and Khmeimim air force base to the north, which is also allegedly used by Russia and the Iranians.