It looks very much as though prospects for preventing Israel’s war with Hamas from widening into a regional conflict have become much more difficult. The BBC is reporting that Syria is claiming that the Israelis have bombed the Damascus and Aleppo airports:
State media said runways had been damaged at both Damascus and Aleppo airports and flights would be diverted to Latakia, a city in north-west Syria.
Israel has not commented on the strike. It has previously attacked targets in war-torn Syria, linked to Iran.
Iran’s foreign minister was planning to fly to Syria on Friday.
Syria’s Damascus and Aleppo airports not only handle civil aviation but also host military bases, which are reportedly transit points for Iranian arms sent to Hezbollah – a militant group which is powerful in both Syria and Lebanon.
An unnamed military source quoted by Syrian state media said “simultaneous” Israeli strikes had “damaged landing strips in the two airports, putting them out of service”. The source called it a “desperate”Israeli attempt to divert attention from the Gaza conflict.
This is breaking news. Whether this is tactical or strategic or true at all is impossible to say.
To be clear about my prediction I just posted, I wouldn’t consider border conflict with Lebanon and Syria that amounts to missile strikes as a regional conflict. Lebanon occasionally fires missiles at Shebaa Farms, as it did recently, and Israel attacked Syria during its ongoing Civil War.
I was thinking of something akin to Yom Kippur War, which I believe would be a failure for U.S. foreign policy, which I see as essentially having drifted towards ensuring that Israel is a major military power in the region capable of defending itself, though not the only one (see the Sauds).
There’s been low level conflict for years between Israel and Hezbollah (missiles fired back and forth), and Israel and Syria (mostly Israel striking targets it believes are linked to Iran). The war hasn’t expanded yet.
Hezbollah did threaten to get involved if Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza. But we don’t know if Israel will launch a ground invasion or if Hezbollah really intends to follow its words.
I think there’s a difference between lobbing a few rockets at Shebaa Farms and closing runways in major airports.
If you do a Google search, you will find Israel hits Syrian airports including Damascus and Aleppo about once every 6 months for the last few years.
Attacking these airports is not unprecedented, but the way they did it might be. Typically, they’ve attacked specific shipments of weapons transfers between Iran and Hezbollah.