Israeli Haaretz: The Assad regime doesn’t pose a strategic threat to Israel
Haaretz newspaper stated in a report that the Assad regime does not pose a strategic threat to Israel despite the Iranian military presence in Syria.
The Israeli newspaper quoted an expert in Israeli intelligence, as saying that the departure of Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria will leave Israel facing difficult questions, in light of the fear of the alternative that will take over the government after him.
The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli view of the Assad regime is not only related to its limited military capacity, but also because the network of relations between Israel and the Assad regime is strengthened by a series of understandings that have developed with Russia.
The consultant considered that Israel is currently operating freely in the airspace over Syria and Lebanon, attacking Iranian installations, and the Assad regime and even the Syrian border with Iraq.
He stated that it is impossible to know what regime will be established as part of the diplomatic solution, what countries will affect the new regime, and what is the strategy of such a regime towards Israel, pointing out that discussions about an alternative regime in Syria are not at the top of the list of priorities of Israeli intelligence officials or the government, as it was at the beginning of the war in Syria.
The newspaper quoted experts as saying that the goal proposed by the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs in the US Congress, Ted Deutsch, to get Russia, Iran, Turkey and Assad out of Syria, is an “unrealistic goal,” while other experts recommended US-Russian cooperation that would allow Moscow to stay in Syria, even without Assad.
