cnelsen
Gold Member
- Banned
- #1
Just so we are all clear, there is no US interest in Syria.
And for a little more clarity:
I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. (Exodus 23:31)
Israel faces blowback from suspected role in Syria strike
By NOGA TARNOPOLSKY
APR 10, 2018 | 2:55 PM
As is customary, Israeli officials refused to comment on the bombing. But on a visit to an emergency command center along Israel’s northern border with Syria, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman alluded to Israel’s concerns over Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and its fear that President Trump may order the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, as he has proposed.
Israel views Iran as its greatest enemy, and a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat.
“I don’t know what happened there and who attacked,” Lieberman said of the Syrian strike. “I know one thing with certainty: We will not allow the Iranians to establish themselves in Syria, whatever the price may be. We have no other choice.”
Allowing Iran to remain in Syria, he said, was akin to “agreeing to the Iranians placing a noose around our necks. We will not allow it.”
Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative reporting site Bellingcat, said in an interview that, in addition to a strictly military purpose, bombing T4 may serve as an Israeli signal to a wavering Trump that it is possible to respond militarily against Russia and Syria in the Syrian arena.
This, he says, is what drew Russian ire. “Russia clearly sees it as a threat,” he said.
Trump has said he will make a “major decision” in the next day about how to react to the suspected chemical attack. The White House has not commented specifically about the apparent Israeli airstrike. In Israel, there is concern that the country’s traditional allies are not speaking out in support of its position. …
If Trump withdraws U.S. troops from Syria, [Alex Grinberg] added, it will be “a real gain” for Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Khamenei.
By NOGA TARNOPOLSKY
APR 10, 2018 | 2:55 PM
As is customary, Israeli officials refused to comment on the bombing. But on a visit to an emergency command center along Israel’s northern border with Syria, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman alluded to Israel’s concerns over Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and its fear that President Trump may order the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, as he has proposed.
Israel views Iran as its greatest enemy, and a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat.
“I don’t know what happened there and who attacked,” Lieberman said of the Syrian strike. “I know one thing with certainty: We will not allow the Iranians to establish themselves in Syria, whatever the price may be. We have no other choice.”
Allowing Iran to remain in Syria, he said, was akin to “agreeing to the Iranians placing a noose around our necks. We will not allow it.”
Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative reporting site Bellingcat, said in an interview that, in addition to a strictly military purpose, bombing T4 may serve as an Israeli signal to a wavering Trump that it is possible to respond militarily against Russia and Syria in the Syrian arena.
This, he says, is what drew Russian ire. “Russia clearly sees it as a threat,” he said.
Trump has said he will make a “major decision” in the next day about how to react to the suspected chemical attack. The White House has not commented specifically about the apparent Israeli airstrike. In Israel, there is concern that the country’s traditional allies are not speaking out in support of its position. …
If Trump withdraws U.S. troops from Syria, [Alex Grinberg] added, it will be “a real gain” for Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Khamenei.
And for a little more clarity:
I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you. (Exodus 23:31)