Kasra Aarabi and Saeid Golkar
The Telegraph, Dec. 5, 2024
“Khamenei and the IRGC are fully aware that losing Assad would land a decisive blow to their regime’s regional ambitions and eternal quest to eradicate Israel. Tehran spent a significant amount of money and blood to preserve Assad the last time he was on the brink of collapse (2012-2019).”
“If Syria falls, Hezbollah will be besieged… and all of its achievements will be lost.” Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s terror chief – recently killed in an Israeli airstrike – made this assertion in 2015. Nasrallah’s words are perhaps more important in today’s post-October 7 world, than they were almost a decade ago, not least as Syrian opposition forces retake territory from President Bashar al-Assad. Against this backdrop, a unique opportunity is emerging for Israel and the West to land a decisive blow to Assad, the Iranian regime and their terrorist proxy network.
Retrospectively, it’s hard to know if the fall of Assad in 2015 would have prevented the October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel – after all, back then, Hezbollah was intact. Today, however, the most lethal Iranian regime proxy in Lebanon has had its capabilities decimated by Israel – and, crucially, Tehran’s primary supply line to rebuild Hezbollah runs through Assad’s Syria.
The fall of Assad would cut Hezbollah’s main artery and suffocate the Iranian regime-backed Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza and the West Bank. This alone could prevent the very real possibility of a repeat of the October 7 attacks. … [To read the full article, click here]