Israel Disrupted Iranian Plan To Establish ‘Second Hezbollah’ In Syria: IDF Chief

Israel has disrupted an plan by Iran to establish “a second Hezbollah” in Syria, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi said on December 27.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Kohavi claimed that Iran wanted to “deploy hundreds of surface-to-surface missiles in Syria alongside tens of thousands of Shia militiamen.”

Kohavi went on to comment on reports of a canceled visit by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi to Syria, saying that he would have seen a smaller Iranian military presence in the war-torn country.

“If he had come, he would see that there is a lot less weaponry and fewer bases and forces,” the senior IDF chief said. “This didn’t happen on its own, but rather, due to [Israel’s] war between wars, which will mark 10 years in March.”

The “war between wars” is the IDF’s name for the covert military campaign it has been waging to prevent Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from entrenching its self in Syria. The campaign is mainly meant to prevent the guards from manufacturing advanced weapons in the country, or smuggling such weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We need to look at Iran collectively and beyond its geographic borders,” Kohavi said. “Alongside nuclear capabilities and exporting the revolution, there is also the use of proxies and militias in the Middle East and Africa.”

Israel carried out at least 34 attacks on Syria this year in the framework of the “war between wars” campaign. Most of the targets were reportedly military positions where the IRGC, Hezbollah and their affiliates are active. The attacks claimed the lives of 34 people, including Syrian service members, fighters from Iranian-backed armed factions and civilians.

While Israeli officials repeatedly claim that the campaign has weakened Iran’s military activities in Syria, Iranian-backed armed factions are still as active in the country as before.

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