Three days ago, Israel launched new and deadly airstrike on the Syrian capital, Damascus, targeting the Iranian Consulate for the first time and assassinating 7 Iranian Generals, among them is a top Brigadier in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
The recent strike is considered to be a serious escalation by Israel, not only because it destroyed the Iranian Consulate in Damascus but also because it resulted in the death of an Iranian General who’s no less important than General Qasem Suleimani – assassinated by an American airstrike in Baghdad in January 2020.
The Israeli escalation against Iranian targets in Syria has been widely intensified since October 7th of last year, as Tel Aviv publicly accused Tehran of organizing and financing the Hamas attack on Israeli settlements – a development followed by a massive war in Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv believes and assures that Iran was the primary provocateur and sponsor of the 7th October attack, thus it made a decision to escalate the confrontation with Iran by tripling the number of air strikes over Syria.
Not only that, but also since the start of the Gaza war last year, Israel and the Lebanese militia of Hezbollah have waged an intensified but “controlled war” along the borders, with tenths of rockets and shells exchanged every single day. The Israeli army believes that Iran has been transporting -through Syria- bigger amounts of arms to Hezbollah during these intense days. This is a second reason behind the escalating Israeli attacks on Syria, targeting not only Iranian Generals and Hezbollah commanders but also many “arms shipments” – as per Israel’s allegations.
Many days after the 7th October, Tel Aviv became more assured about the Iranian masterminding of the attack on its settlements. This is exactly when an Iranian official publicly hinted at his country’s role in the planning of the Hamas offensive last October.
Furthermore, Hezbollah is officially at a “controlled war” with Israel till this very day. This tells one thing, the recent Israeli strike on Damascus is indeed a serious escalation, but also another chapter in the regional proxy war between Israel and Tehran – not an incident happening out of the blue.
The recent escalating tensions between Israel and Iran will probably not lead to a direct confrontation between the two regional powers, nevertheless the region will witness further serious escalation as Iran is expected retaliate to the assassination of Zahedi in a way or another. The Iranian retaliation could be operated through the Lebanese frontier, Yemeni frontier or the Syrian frontier. The next few weeks will probably tell how and when the retaliation will take place, however, a full-scale regional war is still far from happening at this stage.
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