Submitted by: M Mulukin
28 September 2020
Syrian President Bashar Assad, evidently disinclined to be left out in the cold by the Arab world’s pursuit of peace with Israel, has put out his own feelers, according to the influential Saudi Sharq al-Awsat of Sunday, September 27.
He is considering climbing on the bandwagon driven by the Trump administration, whose peace diplomacy brought about United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalization deals with the Jewish state.
More Arab governments, including Sudan, are heading in the same direction. Latterly, as we reported this week, Lebanon and Israel have also been led to the table to discuss their longstanding maritime and land border disputes.
The Sharq al-Awsat’s senior commentator Omar Hamidi noted that Syria’s Bashar al Assad, like his predecessor and father Hafez al-Assad, has more than once, when finding themselves in difficult quandaries, turned to seeking an accommodation with Jerusalem as the gateway to Washington.
Today, trouble is crowding in on his regime from all directions: the Syrian economy is drowning fast, the generals and business leaders in his circle are at each other’s throats, his battlefronts are at a standstill, with chaos on the Syrian Golan; the Turkish army is entrenched in the north and the Kurds in the northeast are unifying for self-rule under US military protection.
While the Syrian ruler would seek joint Russian-American patronage for a new negotiating track with Israel, he is not clear on how his leading protector, Iran, will respond to the move.
He has therefore not yet decided to jump in and is still turning the option over in his mind.
The Trump administration’s recognition of Israel sovereignty over a part of the Golan could be an obstacle. However, Putin, if he decides to join the move, may be asked to conjure up a creative formula that falls between security control and full sovereignty to resolve the issue.
Some Israel security circles favour a deal with Syria as it holds some prospect for breaking up Assad’s alliance with Tehran, which was recently solidified by a formal defence cooperation accord. Once clinched, this deal may eventually persuade Damascus to get rid of the regime’s Iranian “advisers” and expel the IRGC-backed Shiite militias from the country.
In 2020, Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of prayer and fasting on the Jewish calendar, is the harbinger of an unparalleled era of Middle East peace for the Jewish state – in stark contrast to the perils and deaths of Israel’s most perilous and deadly conflict with the Arab world that marked Yom Kippur 1973.
Be careful though – Iran is not about to let her grasp on Syria simply slip through her iron grip? Developing............
Iran sends anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria.
September 28, 2020
According to Iran's Army spokesman Abu Fadl Shikaraji, the Syrian government asked Tehran to provide expert assistance and boost its air defensive capabilities to counter air attacks.
"Iran has sent military experts to Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Along with that we have deployed some air defence systems to Syria at the request of the government in Damascus. The economic conditions do not allow us to provide everything free of charge to our allies and sometimes they have to pay for it, “ said Shikaraji.
The Iranian spokesman did not disclose what weapons and air defence system Iran sold to Syria. However, according to Iranian newspaper Raialyoum, Tehran had transferred to Damascus the Bavar-373 and Khordad-3 missile systems to increase the ability to respond to Israeli attacks on Syrian territory.
The Bavar-373 is an Iranian-made long-range surface-to-air missile system (equivalent to the Russian made S-300) with an operational range of 50-75 kilometres. The Khordad-3 air defence system was put into service by Iran in 2012, designed to engage fighters, cruise missiles, smart bombs, helicopters and airplanes.
It was the Khordad-3 system that shot down the US Global Hawk drone on June 20, 2019, over Iranian territorial waters. According to Raialyoum, Iran and Syria signed a military and security agreement aimed at enhancing military technical cooperation to counter increasing challenges and threats.
The agreement was signed by Iran's Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri and Syrian Defence Minister Ali Abdullah Ayyoub. “The two sides will continue their war on Takfiri terror, supported by a number of regional and international powers, as one of the goals of the agreement,” said Bagheri and Ayyoub in a joint statement.
According to Raialyoum's sources, the Iran-Syria military deal sent a strong message to the US and Israel and underlined the strength of the alliance between Iran and Assad Government.
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