Israel-Iran: Risk of An All-Out Conflict Grows After Syria Strikes

• More war mongering, war propaganda from the Illuminist MSM.
• Israel-Iran: Risk of An All-Out Conflict Grows After Syria Strikes
  by Jonathan Marcus, https://www.bbc.com/
  The Israeli Air Force’s strikes against targets in Syria mark the latest stage in a developing struggle between Israel and Iran, one that inevitably risks a much broader conflict. Iran is eager to bolster its military footprint in Syria. Israel is just as eager to stop it.
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  But Iran shows no sign of faltering. It is developing its military capabilities and showing a greater self-confidence. The two players are struggling to establish new “rules” of deterrence, but the risk is that as the level of their military exchanges increases, so the risk of an all-out conflict grows too.
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  The cycle of attack and riposte is all too familiar. Ostensibly the Israeli air attacks were prompted by the firing of four rockets from Syrian territory earlier in the week which were intercepted by Israeli Iron Dome air defences. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the rocket fire may itself have been an Iranian-ordered response to Israeli attacks against Iran’s allies, either in Iraq or in the Gaza Strip.
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  The scale of the Israeli riposte was significant. The targets were associated with Iran’s Quds Force, some of which were inside Syrian military facilities. A Syrian headquarters was also attacked along with six Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries, to afford the Israeli jets the necessary freedom of action. A senior Israeli security source noted that this was “a large-scale retaliation, including Iranian casualties”.
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  The message from Israel to Tehran is clear. Any attacks out of Syria will be met by a disproportionate response. Now it is upping the military stakes. But Iran is sending a message of its own too.
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  Despite a long-running Israeli air campaign designed to constrain the Iranian build-up in Syria, Tehran is determined that this project will continue. It is a close ally of the Assad regime in Damascus and it sees Syrian-territory both as a front line across which to confront Israel and as an important link to its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. So far, events are all too familiar. But some of the underlying strategic factors are changing, and this makes the rivalry between Israel and Iran ever more dangerous.
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