A dangerous subplot is taking place in Syria

From the Chicago Tribune:

One of the most confounding — and dangerous — aspects of the six-year-conflict in Syria is that its roster of combatants continues to broaden. Russia and Iran are helping Syrian President Bashar Assad run down U.S.-backed rebels. Islamic State has been routed from most of its territory but still holds pockets of the Euphrates River valley. NATO member Turkey recently began attacking U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters in the country’s north, the same Kurdish fighters that helped defeat Islamic State.

Now another subplot is emerging, involving one of America’s strongest allies: Israel.

On Saturday, an Iranian drone violated Israeli airspace. Israel answered quickly, shooting down the drone and then sending F-16 fighter jets into Syria to take out the command centre that launched the drone. One of those F-16s on its way back to Israel was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire. Israel then retaliated with airstrikes on eight Syrian and four Iranian military targets within Syria. There’s much more to this than a violation of airspace. For some time, Israelis have seethed over Iran’s ever-deepening presence in Syria. Tehran provides military support to Assad, but is also fortifying its own military presence in Syria, not far from Israel’s northern border, and helping its Shiite ally, Hezbollah.

Syria-based attacks from Assad or Iran aimed at Israel should be dealt with forcefully, but military responses aren’t the only answer. But conflict between Iran, Assad, Hezbollah and Israel does more than destabilize Syria — it throws a wrench into Moscow’s Middle East agenda. The road to muzzling Iran’s belligerence in Syria could go through Moscow, a tack the U.S. and Israel should think hard about taking.