Following the recent Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, Iran’s President Raisi is in Syria. His country is pulling the strings in the Middle East. Slowed down by domestic politics, Israel can only watch.
You can hardly get any closer to the mortal enemy. When Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Lebanon a few days ago, he insisted on making a detour to the Lebanese-Israeli border. Directly at the border fence he looked at Israel, for which he also had a message ready:
We are here in Marun al-Ras to once again declare in a loud voice that we support the resistance in Lebanon against Zionist unity.
Israel only understands the language of violence, he added – a message that was more than registered in Israel.
No more talk of Israel’s new alliances
Israel is looking at the new alliances emerging in the Middle East with some amazement. Shortly after taking office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named solidarity with Saudi Arabia as one of the most important foreign policy goals. After the recent rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, there is no longer much talk of it.
Instead, on Israel’s Independence Day, Netanyahu issued a stark warning to Iran and its allies. Israel is fighting resolutely against any nuclear deal with Iran – a deal that would pave the way for the country to acquire nuclear weapons.
And for the same reason, we fight vigorously against the terrorist extensions of Iran around us. Those who try to put us in the stranglehold of terror will meet with an overwhelming response.
Ebrahim Raisi is the first Iranian president in Syria in ten years. Tehran is one of the main supporters of the Assad government.
Bombs at Aleppo airport
There was a reaction: Aleppo airport was bombed during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Even if there is no official confirmation: Amos Yadlin, the former head of the Israeli military intelligence service, is not the only one who is convinced that the attack was an Israeli one. He sees the attack “as a kind of message” for the upcoming visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Syria. “Over the weekend we saw Iran’s foreign minister standing on the northern border, looking at the Galilee and saying that Israelis only understand strength.”
Yadlin said he thinks that was the reason for the attack: “The Syrians have to understand that there is a price when they have Hezbollah and Iran as guests.”
“Paradigm shift in the near East”
The Middle East is on the move. And Iran is pulling the strings, observes former Israeli military spokesman for the northern border, Olivier Rafowicz: “Iran is getting ever closer to Syria, so that a paradigm shift is taking place in the Middle East.” Syria is returning to normal relations with the Arab world.
Things were changing very quickly in the Middle East, “and it is Iran that is directing these changes.”
Israel busy with its domestic politics
Israel, which has been unable to set any foreign policy accents due to the domestic political upheavals of the past few months, is watching the events spellbound as a spectator – from the stands, so to speak.
When he took office at the end of December, Prime Minister Netanyahu proudly referred to the new Israeli connections to the Arab world. Diplomatic rapprochement was recently reached with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. In addition to the existing diplomatic ties with Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.
As it stands, Israel’s ambitions to further improve relations with the Arab world are likely to be on hold for the time being. Iran has clearly opposed the whole thing with its new charm offensive in the Middle East.