Frédéric Simon (correspondent in Israel) / Photo credits: AAREF WATAD / AFP
10:01 a.m., December 1, 2024
The lightning capture of Aleppo, Syria's second city, by jihadists and rebels, worries many neighboring powers, most of them already involved in other conflicts. Tehran, ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is particularly alarmed by this dazzling advance. A fragility from which Israel could benefit.
Jihadists and anti-regime rebels are advancing spectacularly in Syria. This Saturday, they captured the country's second city, Aleppo. A lightning offensive which left 320 dead, according to an NGO. The Syrian president assures that his country is capable of defeating terrorists, but it finds itself weakened with allies Russia, Lebanese Hezbollah and occupied Iran on other fronts.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs is also expected in Syria this Sunday. Tehran, ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is worried about the rapid and surprising advance of this coalition between jihadists and rebels. How does the Jewish state, Iran's sworn enemy, perceive this offensive?
Arms supply monitoring
Observers speak of a mixture of satisfaction and concern. Satisfaction, because this blow to the Bashar al-Assad regime constitutes a further weakening for Iran and its support network in the region. After the elimination of the leader of Hezbollah and the destruction of a considerable part of the arsenal of missiles available to the Shiite militia during the war between it and Israel.
War which officially ended this week. Even if the ceasefire concluded between the Jewish state and Lebanon seems fragile. One of the conditions for its maintenance is the strict surveillance of Hezbollah's arms supply routes, and most of them pass through Syrian territory precisely. Israeli leaders, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, have threatened to directly attack the Syrian regime if arms convoys from Iran continue to transit through Syria.
And a possible weakening of this regime could therefore be beneficial from Israel's point of view. That said, and this is where some concern is being heard, if the successes of the rebel offensive are confirmed, the chaos that could ensue does not reassure Israeli officials. Their main fear: that Syrian weapons, unconventional, mainly chemical, will fall into the wrong hands, a fear all the greater since a significant part of the Syrian rebels are affiliated with Islamist and jihadist currents.
