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Israeli Defence Minister warns of new Syrian military capability
Israel’s Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has warned that Syria is building a military force significantly larger than existed before 2011.
On a visit to the Golan Heights, Lieberman said: “Across the way we see the Syrian military, which is not satisfied with just taking over all of Syrian territory but is expressly building a broad-based, new ground army that will return to its previous proportions and beyond.”
The Syrian Army has been heavily reinforced by Iran and Hezbollah during the seven year civil war. Iran has built up a number Shi’ite militias with fighters from Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which amounts to more than 50,000 foreign personnel fighting alongside the Syrian Army. In addition, an estimated 90,000-100,000 Syrian soldiers fight in the National Defence Forces (NDF), a paramilitary force trained by Iran that far outnumbers the front-line fighting strength of the Syrian Army.
Lieberman said that Iran is spending $2.5bn a year on funding military activity in Syria, Hezbollah, Shi’ite militias in Iraq, Houthi militias in Yemen and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime’s successful military offensive in southern Syria prompted two visits by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Russia. During his July visit to Moscow, Netanyahu reportedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel would not seek to topple Assad, but that Moscow should instead encourage all Iranian military advisors and forces to leave Syria.
Israel’s Ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, said yesterday that Israel and Russia had reached an understanding to ensure the preservation of the 1974 ceasefire line on the Golan Heights. TASS Russian News Agency reported that Koren told Russian journalists in Stavropol: “We coordinated the arrangement under which Russia pledged to make sure that the Syrian Army will not cross the ceasefire line established under the 1974 agreement. It looks like everything is functioning for the time being. I hope it will be so in the future, as well.”