Iranian-backed Shi’ite forces in Syria could play a weighty role in war

Yaakov Lappinis an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He is the in-house analyst at the Miryam Institute; a research associate at the Alma Research and Education Center; and a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. He is a frequent guest commentator on international television news networks, including Sky News and i24 News. Lappin is the author of Virtual Caliphate: Exposing the Islamist State on the Internet. Follow him at: www.patreon.com/yaakovlappin.

(JNS) The presence of tens of thousands of Iran-backed Shi’ite military-terror operatives in Syria was recently brought to the public’s attention following reports that Houthi Yemeni fighters were making their way to the country, as part of preparations to attack Israel.

The Islamic Republic has worked diligently to entrench its military position in Syria, providing support to various Shi’ite militias, including Hezbollah, which has been trying to build terror bases in the south, and militia members from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria itself, among others. These efforts are part of Iran’s broader strategy to surround Israel with bases of attack across the Middle East. READ MORE