Israel exploiting post-Assad vacuum to expand Syria occupation, destroy military capabilities: Experts

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) – Israel is exploiting the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to further its own objectives in Syria, expanding its illegal occupation in the Golan Heights in violation of international treaties and targeting military sites across the country, according to experts.

Since Sunday, Israel has launched ground invasions in the Mt. Hermon area and sent in more troops to the Golan Heights buffer zone, while carrying out a series of airstrikes on military bases and weapon stockpiles across Syria, with reports of over 100 sites being hit.

Analysts believe Israel’s actions, including the cancellation of the 1974 disengagement agreement and the occupation of Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, are part of a larger and more sinister strategy.

“Israel is enlarging its control and occupation of more territory in the south of Syria, starting from the Golan Heights to Mt. Hermon and other villages in Quneitra,” military analyst Elijah Magnier told Anadolu.

By terming the 1974 agreement null and void, Israel has essentially declared war on Syria, he asserted.

Attacking more Syrian territory is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to pursue the “Greater Israel” project that envisions Israel reshaping the region by invading and occupying vast tracts of land in its neighboring countries, including Syria, he said.

According to Magnier, Israel has seized hundreds of kilometers of land in Syria over the past 48 hours, including Mt. Hermon, Quneitra, and other parts of the Golan Heights.

“The Israelis are still advancing, and have occupied more than 600 square kilometers (over 230 square miles) which is more or less double the size of the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Israel is now in a position where it can occupy and seize more land in Syria, as well as Iran and Lebanon, Magnier added.

- Destroying Syria’s military capabilities

Analyst Andreas Krieg believes that Israel is exploiting the “window of instability and chaos” to destroy the military capabilities of the Syrian army, and prevent its weapons from falling into the hand of the various factions within the country.

“They’ve destroyed stockpiles, arms depots, munitions and planes … other components of the Syrian armed forces, and especially hardware,” Krieg told Anadolu.

These attacks are based on Israel’s claims of perceived threats emanating from Syria, he said, adding that the real objectives are more dangerous in nature.

He believes Israel will keep up its attacks on Syrian land, while also keeping a “wait-and-see” approach, as things remain unclear over who will lead Syria in the future.

Magnier also agreed with Krieg’s assessment, saying that the Israelis are “destroying all the Syrian weapons” to make sure no one can retaliate to its invasion of Syrian territory.

“They don’t want any reaction from Syria against their forces or in any area where there are Israelis,” he said.

“With the destruction of all these missiles and warehouses, Syria is not in a position to retaliate.”

Israel has confirmed it is striking military targets in Syria, adding that it is doing so with the backing of the US. Washington has defended Israel’s seizure of the demilitarized buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, saying that “every country has the right to take action against terrorist organizations.”

“Every country, I think, would be worried about a possible (power) vacuum that could be filled by terrorist organizations on its border, especially in volatile times,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

“This is a temporary action that they have taken in response to actions by the Syrian military to withdraw from that area,” he added, claiming that Israel’s actions are not “permanent.”

- Israel could occupy Syrian territories ‘for years’

Israel is using a specific strategy to frame its actions in Syria, trying to mask its territorial ambitions as a defense of minorities in the country.

“The head of the Israeli army’s intelligence agency, Shlomi Binder, met yesterday with the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, His Eminence Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, following the fall of the Syrian regime,” read an official Israeli statement, a copy of which was seen by Anadolu.

That claim holds little ground for Ahron Bregman, a political scientist and former Israeli military officer, who believes that Israel is gunning for a long-term occupation of Syria.

“Israel says it is a ‘temporary’ measure, but, in my opinion, they will stay there for weeks, months, perhaps even years,” he argued.

According to Bregman, a teaching fellow at King’s College London, Israel’s expansion and occupation of more land in the buffer zone would have been a major event in normal times.

The Israelis know that “in the current chaos, nobody will make a fuss about their bombardment inside Syria,” he said.

On Western backing for Israel’s expanding aggression in Syria, Magnier pointed out that Tel Aviv’s operations are believed to be carried out with US blessing.

“It is out of the question for the Americans to say anything … and the Israelis are continuing to annex more Syrian territory,” he said.

“There is no reaction from any part of the international community against Israel’s occupation of more Syrian territory.”