According to Western and Arab media sources, on the night of October 31, Israeli warplanes launched a series of new air strikes on targets near the Syrian port city of Latakia.
While officials in Israel did not give any comment on this information, preferring not to advertise to the international community its implications in this act of aggression against another sovereign state, the American television channel CNN, citing the Obama administration, indicated that the air strikes were carried out by the Israeli Air Force. Justifying the actions of the Israelis, the British and American media specified that the target of this bombing were allegedly missiles, aimed at the radical Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose soldiers are fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
According to the TV channel Al Arabiya, in addition to the attack in Latakia, the Israeli Air Force also struck several other missile complexes in the area around Damascus, destroying them completely.
In order to conceal its affiliation with this barbaric move, Israel even tried to present the event, using the controlled Lebanese media, as “an act of Turkish retaliation” for the F-4 fighter plane destroyed by Syria in June of this year. This version was eagerly seized by the Lebanese television station MTV.
This year, the Israeli Air Force has repeatedly carried out air strikes on Syrian targets, violating international law and the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.
On January 31 of this year, the Israeli Air Force destroyed one of the facilities of a military research center near Damascus, killing two employees and injuring five others.
On May 3 and 5, 2013, air strikes were carried out on four districts in the suburbs of the capital: Kaddasii, Jaramana, Al-Hamah and Sabburah, where two brigades of the presidential guard were housed. About 300 Syrian soldiers were killed.
In July of this year, Israel carried out another air strike on a missile storehouse in Latakia.
On October 23, Israeli war planes attacked a Syrian truck convoy on the border between Lebanon and Syria, ostensibly carrying rockets that were intended for Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
The recent Israeli attacks can’t be called anything other than a provocation, aimed at deepening the armed conflict. Primarily because Israel’s actions coincided with Syria’s destruction of all of its equipment for chemical weapons production and mixing of components, in compliance with the terms of international agreements.In this way, Damascus clearly fulfill edits commitments under the program of disarmament. Syria’s actions were positively evaluated by OPCW inspectors, the international community as well as in Washington.
After the appearance of publications on the armed attack by the Israeli Air Force on October 31,the Israeli media published a series of angry statements by Israeli officials. However, their indignation was not associated with the evaluation of this deceitful move against a sovereign state, but only with the official recognition of the West that the entire operation was planned and carried out by the hawks in Tel Aviv. Thus, on November 1, Israeli television Channel 10, citing a number of Israeli officials, condemned the American and British leaks as “scandalous”. In particular, it was stated that “the exchange of information between Israel and the U.S. is contractual in nature, but the disclosure of the contents of these exchanges is of serious concern in Israel”. And Alex Fishman, from the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote frankly, “The question is, what are the Americans thinking when they point at Israel as responsible for the strikes in Syria?.. We share information with Washington, but Americans just sell us out, and thereby sabotage the Israeli defense policy”.
Based on an objective assessment of ongoing events in the Middle East, only one statement can be made: the main source of regional tension is Israel, not Syria, Iran, Iraq, or the other states that Washington finds objectionable, against which the United States and its partners are trying to organize “assistance programs” by financing the opposition and destabilizing the political situation.
Actions like those of Tel Aviv not only disrupt international efforts to resolve regional conflicts, but also cause further militarization of the Middle East. These actions must be stopped.
Vladimir Platov, expert on the Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
