For many years, Israel has been seeking to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria, dating back to when the Syrian civil war began in earnest in 2012. This has led to tensions with Israel, especially when Hezbollah sent forces to Syria and when those forces ended up closer to the Golan in 2018.
Now, several years later, Israel is continuing to face Iranian threats in Syria as well as in the wider region. How did this come about and what might the prevention of Hezbollah 2 mean for Israel?
Iran has been an ally of the Syrian regime already before the civil war broke out. Iran also backed Hezbollah for many decades before. Since the 2006 Lebanon War, tensions between Hezbollah and Israel were kept to a relative minimum.
This is not because Hezbollah is less threatening. In fact, Hezbollah has grown quite a bit since 2006, increasing its missile arsenal and its drones and precision-guided missile stocks. It has also flown drones into Israeli airspace and threatened gas platforms located off the Lebanese coast. After the recently signed maritime deal, Hezbollah claimed it got what it wanted from it. READ MORE
