After the fall of Assad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that much of the credit should go to Israel, for having so weakened Hezbollah that it was unable to help prop up Assad’s military. He put it this way: Assad’s fall was the “direct result of the heavy blows we landed on Hamas, on Hezbollah, and on Iran,” and said that ever since the October 7 attacks, Israel has been working in a “systematic, measured and orderly fashion” to dismantle the Iranian axis.
Some people objected to this truth-telling credit-claiming, their anti-Israel animus so deep as to cause them to deny reality.
But one unusual source has just corroborated Netanyahu’s claim. More on his assertion can be found here: “Iranian ambassador to Syria blames Israel for Assad’s fall,” Jerusalem Post, December 10, 2024:
The Iranian Ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, blamed Israel for the fall of former Syrian president Bashar Assad in a televised statement on Sunday night.
Akbari further accused Israel of providing Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) with arms and suggested the Syrian army gave up.
“(Israel) actually gave modern facilities and equipment to the opposition parties that even many advanced countries of the world did not have,” Akbari said, according to AzPost. “Therefore, the Syrian government, army, and people decided not to resist much at this stage.”
Assad’s army of mistreated conscripts collapsed, but not the Syrian people. Many in Syria felt triumphant. This is not something Akbari dares to recognize.
So there you have it. Who is in a better position to know whom to blame for Assad’s fall than Iran’s ambassador in Damascus? And he blames Israel. If you won’t believe Netanyahu when he says Israel deserves much of the credit, will you believe Hossein Akbari? As for Akbari’s claim that Israel gave weapons to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, that does seem implausible, but not impossible if, indeed, its leader has shed his former jihadist views. The Israelis might have calculated that strengthening the rebels would damage Assad’s control over the country and make him more willing to comply with Israeli demands to shut down the weapons route from Iran to Lebanon. We’ll find out about that part of Hossein Akbari’s claim once the dust settles.
Mike Kennedy says
I been reading that after the fall Isreal has target and destroyed weapons and other military resources. They especially targeted and destroyed chemical weapons manufacturing and storage. To me this would seem Isreal regards the new government that will form as one hostile to Isreal. Or was just the case that they knew these targets could be taken out easily after the fall?
Lookmann says
Israel – the eternal fall guy.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
So finally something that both Israel & Iran agree on?
Incidentally, I don’t agree w/ those Israelis who welcome the fall of Assad. Sure, the shi’a crescent may have been broken, but Iran could back sunni groups like Hamas and islamic jihad, what’s to stop them from backing HTS, or any number of sunni groups in Syria under the same criteria? I recall that in 2011, when the Syrian Civil War broke out, then too Israel was reluctant to intervene on the grounds that the devil they knew (Assad) was better than the one they didn’t. Same thing is true now. For instance, Iran and the Assad regime had an agreement of a buffer zone on their border, whereas Israel has now had to occupy it, since they have no idea what the HTS regime’s stance will be on that one
Point is that the removal of Assad was one of those famous laws of unintended consequences. It’s not like Israel wanted to remove Assad, it’s just that they destroyed 2 of the 3 legs of the stool Assad sat on, while the Russians had already dropped the ball there in their adventure in Ukraine. If anything, I blame the fall of Assad on the miscalculations of both Iran & Hizbullah, who should have recognized that w/ Moscow busy in Ukraine, Putin was in no position to prop up Assad if Israel managed to knock out the lights of both Iran and Hizbullah
Hopefully, after January 20th, there will be a big enough Iranian uprising that topples the islamic regime
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Might have been obvious, since Syria has no direct border w/ Iran. Only Israel
Blougeoisie says
Not Iran’s fault for getting to greedy about having colonies?