Syria at a turning point. View from Israel
Israeli experts worry that, in case of the collapse of Assad’s regime, the civil war in Syria won’t stop, in fact it will only just begin. The waves of this war will strike both Turkey and Israel.
According to a semi-secret report prepared by Israeli analytical centers, the so-called Free Syrian Army under command of the deserter Colonel Riad El Assad is actively financed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Turkey. Probably the West stands behind the financing as well. At the same time, the report states that there is no Free Syria Army in reality, there are separate troops coordinating their activities and using the peaceful population as a “human shield.”
The Israeli experts conclude that the Free Syrian Army is not a force that could take control of the whole territory of Syria, which has found itself in a situation of growing chaos.
The other real force within the country are the Salafi – members of the organization “Sword of Jihad.” Their troops are formed from local Sunnis, who call Bashar Assad “the Devil” and dream about an Islamic regime in Syria. They are considered to be the initiators of recent terrorist attacks on top Syrian officials.
At the same time, according to the report, in the last few months Al-Qaeda militants have poured into Syria from Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. The ethnic composition of these people is eclectic: Algerians, Egyptians, citizens of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Chechens, and Bosnians. They operate in small groups.
In hundreds of residential areas of Syria, primarily in villages where Armenians and Arab Christians live, armed defense squads have appeared. Members of these troops have no clear religious or political ideology. They have gathered to defend their homes and families. But the Syrian Christians won’t be happy if the Free Syrian Army comes to power.
Thus, Israel tends to think that the Russian position on Syria is right: that Assad’s regime is the lesser evil.
Pyotr Lukimson, Israel. Exclusively to VK
