Israel’s opportunistic attack on Syria

TEHRAN,Feb.12(MNA)--Israel’s recent airstrike on a military research center in Syria was clearly meant to intensify the crisis in the country and weaken the Syrian government’s ability to counter threats. The center was previously the target of terrorist attacks, and rebel groups connected with the West and Israel repeatedly tried to shut it down. The Syria crisis was fabricated by the United States and Israel to oust President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has been one of the main components of the anti-Israel resistance front in the region for years. Israel has a long record of conducting sabotage operations targeting sovereign countries’ scientific infrastructure. A number of Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated by Israeli intelligence agency over the past few years. Israel also attacked academic and research facilities in Iraq in 1996 and in Syria in 2007. Israel launched the attack shortly after Turkey, in a joint operation with NATO, provocatively began deploying Patriot missiles on its border with Syria. In fact, Israel used the opportunity to attack the military research center north of Damascus while the Syrian military was concentrating on measures to counter Ankara’s decision. The sporadic clashes between the Lebanese army and pro-Israeli groups on the Syrian border were also orchestrated by the U.S. and Israel in order to exacerbate the situation. However, the Syrian opposition’s recent proposal to hold talks with the government clearly indicates that Israel and the U.S. have failed to completely militarize the situation on the ground, and they are looking for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict. In other words, after spending billions of dollars to support the rebels and terrorists in Syria, the Western-Israeli-Arab front have lost hope about ousting Assad. Although the proposal is generally a positive move for restoring peace and stability in Syria, opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib’s offer for talks was accompanied by calls for more military support from the anti-Syria front. This may raise questions about the sincerity of the opposition’s proposal, and it may be viewed as a move that was only taken to gain more concessions from the Syrian government. Hossein Sheikholeslam formerly served as Iran’s ambassador to Syria. He is currently the parliament speaker’s advisor on international issues. (By Hossein Sheikholeslam )