Bennett: We identified signs that Iran is recalculating plans in Syria

Israel has warned repeatedly about Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as its aspirations of regional hegemony.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett during a recent visit to the Syrian border (photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett during a recent visit to the Syrian border
(photo credit: ARIEL HERMONI / DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Israel has identified initial signs that Iran is recalculating its trajectory in Syria, giving the Jewish state an opportunity to go from the defensive to the offensive, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday.
“I can announce that we are identifying initial signs of loosening and recalculation by Iran regarding its plans in Syria,” Bennett said at the New Tech conference. “We just started and we will increase. We will go from a defensive concept to an offensive concept – weakening, tiring and erasing the octopus’s head by weakening its tentacles.
“For us, Syria is not only a threat but also an opportunity,” he said. “They send forces there and try to exhaust us, but we can turn the downside into an advantage. We have intelligence and operational superiority, and we are telling Iran clearly: ‘Get out of Syria. You have nothing to look for there.’”
Israel has warned repeatedly about Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as its aspirations of regional hegemony. Jerusalem has admitted to hundreds of air strikes as part of its “war-between-wars” campaign to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the entrenchment of its forces in Syria, where they could easily act against the Jewish state.
Bennett also referred to ongoing demonstrations taking place across Iran by citizens who are suffering from the economic sanctions placed on the Islamic Republic by the United States.
“The Iranian people are telling the Ayatollahs: ‘stop wasting our money and shedding our blood in [needless] adventures.’ The Iranian people have had enough,” he said, adding that “we in Israel are corresponding with this message. The ground is burning in Iran, the embers are not extinguished, they are glowing.”
Last week, the IDF released more details of its new “Momentum” multi-year plan. One of the top priorities of Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi’s plan, which aims to obtain a considerable military advantage over Israel’s foes, is to establish a new Iran Command.
That same day Bennett said that Israel is engaged in a continuous campaign to weaken Iran and to remove its forces from Syria.
“We are constantly working to raise the stakes for Iran until we reach our ultimate goal: removing them from Syria. We will continue to prevent an Iranian presence on our northern border,” Bennett said during a memorial ceremony at Kibbutz Dafna in the Galilee.
“For generations, we have been constantly fighting the arms of the Iranian octopus in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, and we have not focused enough on the weakening of Iran itself,” Bennett said, adding that there has now been a change in Israel’s way of thinking.
“We are in a continuous campaign to weaken the Iranian octopus. On the economic level, political, intelligence, military, and others,”
he explained. “When [an] octopus’s arms beat you, don’t fight back with only your arms, but strangle the head. And so it is with Iran.”
The new Iran Command will be led by a major general and will be dedicated to and focused on analyzing threats posed by the Islamic Republic and planning Israel’s campaign against it.
The plan will bolster the IDF’s attack capabilities, including improved technological means for IAF jets to destroy enemy targets, increasing the military’s intelligence superiority; expanding its intelligence gathering on the Islamic Republic, including by satellites; and bolstering Israel’s cyber capabilities, both defensive and offensive.