Ron Ben Yishai
Ynet News, Dec. 26, 2023
“If indeed Israel was behind his killing, as Arab media reports claimed, this was in response to Iran’s direct involvement in aggression toward maritime trade routes, since the start of the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.”
Sayyed Reza Mousavi was the third brigadier general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be assassinated in Syria this month. Media outlets in Iran and the Arab world have accused Israel of his killing, as well as the previous killing of the two high ranking officers and an IRGC colonel who was killed there at the end of November. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi threatened that Israel would “pay the price” for the latest assassination.
According to reports out of Syria, Mousavi was killed along with some of his aides after he arrived from Iraq for a round of talks with Syrian and Lebanese officials. There is no doubt that he had considerable sway in the area and a major role in operating the Shi’ite militias working in the service of the IRCG.
Some said Israel decided to carry out the assassination after an Iranian drone attacked a ship – operated by a company owned by Israeli shipping mogul Idan Ofer – off the coast of India earlier this week.
The attack was seen in Israel as an uptick in Iran’s strikes on Israeli interests, resulting in increased Israeli actions against Iranians. If those reports are accurate, it appears that the recent assassinations were part of the covert war now being waged between Israel and Iran, which is responsible for the Houthi rebel strikes against Israel in the Red Sea, as well as the attacks carried out from Syrian territory by Shiite militias.
Iran also recently supplied Hezbollah in Lebanon with advanced anti-aircraft systems to shoot down drones and attack helicopters, and those have already been put into use. These Iranian-made surface-to-air 358 missile systems attempted to shoot down Israeli drones and were even intercepted by the IDF.
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