Israeli Security Experts Weigh in on US Withdrawal From Syria, Emphasize Ongoing Iran Threat
A number of Israeli security experts have weighed in on US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria, emphasizing the ongoing threat posed by Iran and the need for Israel to defend itself by itself.
Veteran journalist Ehud Yaari wrote on the Hebrew news site Mako that Trump was “applying the policies of his predecessor, Barack Obama: to uproot the US from the Middle East, because he thinks there is no great advantage to this presence.”
“We are talking about a dark day for the State of Israel,” Yaari added, because the American pullout meant the American-enforced separation between Iran’s Shi’a militias in Iraq and the Tehran regime’s allies in Syria — dictator Bashar Assad and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah — would “disappear.”
As a consequence of the US move, Assad’s forces would be able to take over the border area with Iraq, creating a clear passageway between Iran’s proxies in both countries, predicted Yaari.
Writing on Twitter, former IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin — currently the head of the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) — sounded a more reassuring note.
Read More: Algemeiner