Israel on alert as tensions between US, Russia grow over Syria
Israel Hayom
April 11, 2018
The defense establishment on Wednesday placed the northern sector on high alert as tension between the United States and Russia continue to escalate.
Trump administration officials consulted with global allies Tuesday on a possible joint military response to this week's alleged poison gas attack in Syria, prompting Russia to warn that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria will be shot down.
Israeli defense officials expressed concern that any clash between the two superpowers on Syrian soil would spill over into Israel, saying terrorist groups could try to explore the situation to attack the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a special meeting of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet Wednesday to discuss the escalating tension in the northern sector.
Netanyahu has instructed Likud ministers to refrain from publicly commenting on the issue, citing its "inherent security sensitivity."
Defense officials said that at this time, with the exception of the strike in the T4 air base in Homs, which Syria, Russia and Iran have attributed to Israel, no unusual activity has been noted on Israel's borders with Syria and Lebanon.
Still, Hezbollah on Tuesday circulated photos of Israeli soldiers patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border. The move is believed to be an attempt by the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist group to illustrate the threat it poses to Israeli troops.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday canceled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump warned Monday of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.
Washington officials said the U.S., France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week, although none of the three countries' leaders had made a firm decision on the matter.
The American-Russian standoff exacerbated tensions in the northern sectors, already high on the heels of an alleged Israeli strike on an air base believed to have been used by Iranian troops.
Iran's Tasnim news agency released images from the bombarded T4 air base near Homs, showing the extensive damage to the premises.
Israeli Defense analysts said the strike took a serious toll on Iran's efforts to establish itself militarily in Syria, dealing a major blow to Iran's drone deployment in the war-torn country.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman refused to comment on the strike, saying, "I don't know exactly what happened there but what I do know is that we will not allow Iranian presence in Syria, no matter the price. We have no other choice. We will not agree to have an Iranian noose around our neck."
He noted that "there are elements that could prevent that without military friction and I hope these elements do the right thing."
Syria braces for U.S. strike
A joint military operation, possibly with France rather than the U.S. in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syria’s political and military support from Russia and Iran.
President Emmanuel Macron said France, the U.S. and Britain will decide how to respond in the coming days and called for a "strong and joint response" to Saturday's attack Douma.
The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons against civilians. The French president does not need parliamentary permission to launch a military operation. France is already involved in the U.S.-led coalition created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Syrian military on Wednesday began moving troops to Russian bases amid concern over a U.S. strike.
According to the BBC, the Syrian military was evacuating its bases near the Lebanon border and transporting its personnel to Russian army sites amid growing concern of Western reprisal for the Douma attack.
Reports in a French newspaper Le Figaro stated that Syrian President Bashar Assad has placed his forces "on alert" for the next three days.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that it hoped all sides involved in Syria would avoid doing anything that could further destabilize the already highly volatile Middle East and made clear it was strongly opposed to a possible U.S. strike on its ally.
Russia's Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin warned Wednesday that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted.
"If there is a strike by the Americans then … the missiles will be downed and even the sources from which the missiles were fired," he told Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV.
Asked about Zasypkin's comments the Kremlin said it did not want to comment on such matters.
"As before, we would like to hope that all sides will avoid any steps that a) are not provoked by anything and b) could significantly destabilize an already fragile situation in the region,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Bracing for a potential Strike, the Russian military has reportedly been scrambling U.S. military drone signals in Syria by scrambling their signals, NBC reported.
On Tuesday, NBC News cited four U.S. officials as saying that Russia began jamming the GPS systems of unmanned surveillance aircraft to prevent retaliation for suspected chemical weapons attacks on civilians.
Although the Pentagon declined to comment on the issue, one unnamed U.S. official confirmed that it had an operational impact on military actions in Syria.
The officials said the sophisticated jamming equipment proved effective against some encrypted signals and anti-jamming receivers, according to NBC News.
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