WarSclerotic

This week began with a violent escalation in the Syrian arena, continued with violent escalation in the Gaza arena, and tensions that lasted until Friday in both arenas.

But by Friday night, things turned for the better. Three developments over the last two days — both Syrian and Gazan — have significantly improved the security situation from an Israeli perspective.

The first took place on Friday, when Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov was interviewed by CNN and announced that Russia is not exactly an ally of the Iranians and that Israel’s security must also be taken into account. Such a statement by the Russian deputy foreign minister can be seen as a diplomatic turning point in which Russia is correcting its direction.

Only on Tuesday did a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry say that the ‘arbitrary’ Israeli attacks should stop. Three days passed, and from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow — higher ranking than the spokeswomen — sang a different tune.

The reason being that Russia, as strange as it may sound, needs us more than it needs Iran. The Russians have recently realized that Israel is willing to go head to head with the wall to thwart Iranian consolidation and increased forces in Syria as well as the project to improve Hezbollah’s position in Lebanon.

The lack of ambiguity on Israel’s part is also a contributor. The Russians’ conclusion, apparently, is that the Iranians are dragging Israel into attacks on Syria, which could prevent Russia from fulfilling its strategic goal of stabilizing Bashar Assad’s regime and start rebuilding Syria. The Russians are supposed to benefit from the country’s economic and political rehabilitation.

This entry was posted on January 27, 2019 at 6:31 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.