Israel continues to escalate against Syria, as the two sides move further away from a security agreement, and closer towards a conflict.
December 9 witnessed another episode of escalation, with Israeli troops storming the town of Khan Arnabeh in the southern governorate of Quneitra and clashing with the locals.
The troops set up checkpoints all around Khan Arnabeh, restricting the movement from and to the town. When a group of locals gathered near one of the checkpoints to protest, the Israelis opened fire. Syrian state TV said that three people were wounded as a result. Later, the Israeli military said that troops opened fire at “suspects”.
Earlier on the same day, Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora and combating antisemitism, said that war with Syria was “inevitable.” He was commenting on a video showing Syrian troops chanting for the Gaza Strip while marching in Damascus a day earlier to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime.
In a separate incident from December 9, a salvo of three rockets targeted Mezzeh Air Base right next to Damascus, where United States troops could soon be deployed to oversee any security agreement between Syria and Israel.
An agreement seems unlikely, however. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on December 10 that the two sides are today further from reaching a security agreement than before, after Damascus “raised new demands.”
The demands Sa’ar referred to are likely a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in southern Syria after the fall of the Assad regime last year.
Israel has so far refused to withdraw or to stop operations there. On December 10, its troops arrested two people in separate raids, one from the town of al-Aridah in the governorate of Daraa, and another from the town of al-Mashida in Quneitra.
Despite the escalation with Israel, Syria continues to develop its ties with the U.S. Later on December 10, the House of Representatives voted forward a bill that would end the restrictive Caesar Act sanctions on the country that was originally imposed during the rule of the Assad regime.
The latest Israeli escalation against Syria may be in fact a direct result of growing relations between Damascus and Washington.
Israel likely views a U.S. partnership with Syria as a threat to its military’s freedom of action in the Middle East. A security agreement with Damascus would allow Washington to invest even more in the relations with the war-torn country, thus Israel will not likely move forward with such an agreement now. Israel may, however, attempt to instigate some crisis between Washington and Damascus.
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israel não sabe o que fazer