WarSclerotic

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed that supporting Palestine was a fundamental principle of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, the Iranian news network Press TV reported on Saturday.

Zarif met the Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement Ziad al-Nakhala in Tehran to strengthen ties with the group, emphasizing his support for the Palestinian people and their cause.

Islamic Jihad has been labelled a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Israel and other countries, and has seen been backed with Iranian funds. With its main strongholds in Hebron and Jenin in the West Bank, its operations have included suicide bombings, attacks on Israeli civilians and rocket fire, including a bomb attack in Jerusalem that injured more than 100 people.

Following Islamic Jihad rocket fire in Gaza into Israel in October, an IDF statement said that they launched rockets “under the encouragement of the terror-exporting Iranian regime,” and that rocket fire was conducted with “clear guidance from Iran.”

President Donald Trump flew to Iraq’s Ayn al-Asad airbase on Wednesday in a surprise address to US troops stationed there. It came the day after Christmas and was Trump’s first visit to a US war zone. He echoed comments he had made since his campaign, aiming to reduce America’s presence abroad and get other countries to pay for their own defense. He also sought to hammer home his decision to leave Syria. He is charting a unique course for the United States, but by doing so and reducing the US influence and presence in the Middle East, his words will have ramifications on Israel.

Since Trump’s Syria withdrawal decision on December 19, Israeli leaders have put on a brave face, not openly disagreeing with the US decision and asserting that Israel will act against Iranian threats in Syria and other threats that may emerge. The alleged Israeli airstrikes on December 25 near Damascus can be interpreted as part of the message. The Syrian regime blamed Israel, and Russia critiqued Jerusalem for endangering a civilian aircraft. Russia’s words are not only about the civilian aircraft. The threat to Syrian civilian flights comes from Syrian air defense whose wild firing of missiles threatens their own planes just as they mistakenly shot down a Russian IL-20 in September. However, Moscow’s warning is a warning to Israel about continued operations.

This dovetails with Trump’s Iraq visit. The US President could have made this part of a larger trip, going to Baghdad and Erbil to meet essential Iraqi leaders, and then to Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel to show that the US may be leaving Syria, but the US is not leaving the Middle East. Instead this visit was a US-only visit. It took place in Iraq, but at a US airbase. Therefore it was designed for a domestic American audience, but the Middle East paid close attention to Trump’s words.

Trump said ISIS was mostly defeated, and that the US would remain in Iraq to prevent a resurgence. “We are putting America first for the first time in a long time,” Trump said, arguing that the US would no longer be suckers, paying for foreign wars. He said the Syria conflict demands a political solution, and that Saudi Arabia and Turkey might be part of that. He argued that the US would withdraw in an orderly manner from Syria “while maintaining US presence in Iraq to prevent ISIS resurgence and protect US interests, and also to always watch very closely over any reformation of ISIS and also to watch over Iran. We’ll be watching,” Trump said.

The comments about Iran are part of a larger US policy that began with Trump’s decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal and continued with sanctions applied this fall, particularly in November. However Iran appears to be on a charm offensive in the region. Its president was recently in Turkey, and it is working with Ankara and Moscow to form a constitution committee for Syria. It also attended the Doha Forum. In each instance, Iran seeks to show that it is an influential country, and it pairs its visits with jibes at Israel. Recent comments by Turkey’s president against Israel, even comparing Israeli actions against the Palestinians to the Holocaust, paired with Iran’s comments and Russia’s criticism, show that Israel may be in for rough sailing ahead. Israel has improved some relations in the Gulf but Turkey and Iran are two of the most important and powerful countries and economies in the region. The warmth their leaders show is a threat to Israel, as is Iran’s presence in Syria and its growing influence in Iraq. Confabs like the Doha Forum also isolate Israel as Jerusalem has no presence at them, even as Qatar still claims to play a positive role in the peace process.

Now is the time to have a serious conversation with the US about its Middle East strategy. Trump wants to put America first. The US is increasing its defense budget which is good for Israel because of defense connections between Israel and the US. But a reduced US presence in the region is not helpful in the long term.

A Fars Air Qeshm 747 that left Tehran Sunday morning, landing in Damascus at 10:30 a.m., has been accused in the past of transporting weapons to Hezbollah.

Eyewitnesses saw the aircraft land in Damascus.

The accusations surfaced in a September Fox News report based on western intelligence assessments. The cargo plane made suspicious flights in July and August to Damascus and Beirut.

“The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East,” a source told Fox News.

The cargo plane made another suspicious trip on November 29 to Beirut. On December 25 it flew to Damascus and left later that same evening. Airstrikes, which Russia and Syria blamed on Israel, struck west of Damascus soon after.

Israel has warned in the past about Hezbollah storing weapons in locations in Beirut.

According to observers online who track suspicious flights and military activity, the arrival of the flight coincided with activity by at least two other flights off the coast of Lebanon that are involved in collecting intelligence.

“If I had to guess I would say they were targeting Iranian facilities in Syria and possible weapons transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” Rick Francona, a retired US Air Force intelligence officer and former CNN military analyst tweeted Sunday morning.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will hold a tripartite meeting with representatives from the IDF and Lebanese Armed Forces to discuss the cross border tunnels dug by Hezbollah into northern Israel, it was announced on Sunday.

The meeting, whose date was not disclosed, will be held at UNIFIL’s base in Naqoura in southern Lebanon and will also discuss other violations of UN Security Council resolution 1701, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Israel launched Operation Northern Shield in early December to discover and destroy tunnels dug by the Lebanese Shiite terror group into northern Israel.  The IDF has so far found five tunnels and has destroyed at least four of them, two by explosives and another two by flooding with liquid concrete.

The Israeli military has repeatedly warned that the Lebanese government is responsible for the digging of the tunnels which they say were part of a Hezbollah plan to attack communities in northern Israel.

On Friday the military flooded at least two tunnels which extended several meters into Israel near the community of Metula with liquid concrete to prevent Hezbollah from using them.

The material was seen coming out of the tunnel in several places in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila where the tunnel was dug from, including in a residential building next to the border fence which was used to make bricks.

“This fact indicates Hezbollah’s use of civilian structures in the heart of an urban area in southern Lebanon, in flagrant violation of Resolution 1701 and endangering its citizens by using them as human shields,” the military said in a statement.

“It is clear that this factory belongs to Hezbollah and was used to build tunnels,” Manelis said, adding that there were other locations in Kfar Kila which were connected to tunnels and therefore the IDF saw material come out in several locations, including into residential homes.

“The IDF views the Lebanese government as responsible for the digging of the tunnels and for the consequences of its action. This is a serious violation of Resolution 1701 and the sovereignty of the State of Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson warned.

On Saturday UNIFIL released a statement confirming the existence of four tunnels, including the ones flooded by the IDF.

“In the course of the ongoing investigation into the presence of tunnels along the Blue Line, UNIFIL together with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) surveyed the premises of an old concrete factory in the southern part of (Kafr Kila), after UNIFIL had observed liquified cement flowing out from the building within this facility,” read the statement.

“The liquid overflowing on the Lebanese side had been injected by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) through a shaft drilled on their end of a tunnel that UNIFIL had previously independently confirmed to be crossing the Blue Line in the same general area. Based on this observation, UNIFIL can confirm that the old concrete factory in (the village) has an opening to the tunnel, which is crossing the Blue Line,” the statement added.

UNIFIL added that it had been informed by the IDF on Wednesday of another tunnel that had been destroyed near the Lebanese village of Ayta ash-Shab that had not been reported to UN peacekeepers, “therefore it’s existence has not been independently verified by UNIFIL.”

Peacekeepers “conducted a post-blast assessment and observed a crater in the area,” the statement continued adding that they are working with the Lebanese army to assess any damage caused by the explosion.

“UNIFIL remains engaged with the parties to ensure that all activities in sensitive areas are duly coordinated, the Blue Line is fully respected by both sides, and to help the parties uphold their respective obligations towards the cessation of hostilities under resolution 1701,” it concluded.