Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that Israel has launched airstrikes inside Syria. He said that Israel has carried out “dozens” of attacks in Syria to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining weapons.
Earlier today, we took a closer look at Vladimir Putin’s seemingly abrupt decision to partially withdraw the Russian military from Syria.
The prevailing view seems to be that Moscow somehow intended to put more pressure on Assad to be amenable to a negotiated, political solution and indeed that may be a part of the plan. However, as we noted, it’s not exactly as if The Kremlin is leaving the Syrian leader high and dry.
Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria fighting the civil war alongside government troops have improved their fighting capabilities and learnt modern military tactics from their Russian allies. Hezbollah has suffered 1,300 casualties in Syria , with thousands more of its fighters injured and had to resort to recruiting teenagers recently. But the tide of war has turned since the involvement of the Russians and the organisations increased strength now has significant political and security implications for the Middle-East.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon or avoid travelling there, amid deteriorating political ties between Riyadh and Beirut. On Tuesday they called on “all citizens not to travel to Lebanon, for their safety, and asking citizens residing in Lebanon or visiting not to stay unless extremely necessary.” The move on Tuesday came after Riyadh halted $4bn in aid to Lebanese security forces in response to “hostile” positions linked to the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah.
As you might have noticed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is about to lose his mind with the situation in Syria.
To be sure, the effort to usurp the Bashar al-Assad government wasn’t exactly going as planned in the first place. Regime change always takes time, but the conflict in Syria was dragging into its fifth year by the time the Russians got directly involved and although it did indeed look as though the SAA was on the verge of defeat, the future of the rebellion was far from certain.