Iran base crosses Israeli ‘red line’
MIDDLE EAST: Satellite images reportedly show that Iran has established a base outside Damascus to house missiles capable of hitting Israel, crossing a ‘‘red line’’ for the Israeli government as it struggles to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria.
Images from ImageSat International, an Israeli satellite firm, appear to show a pair of newly built missile hangars on the base, which strongly resemble hangars at another Iranian compound that Israel bombed last year.
The new base, located around 13km north-west of Damascus, is being run by the Quds Force, the expeditionary arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which has spearheaded Iran’s involvement in Syria, according to Fox News.
If the base is confirmed to hold Iranian missiles, its presence will likely increase tensions between arch rivals Israel and Iran over Syria, which have been growing sharply in recent months. Those tensions erupted in early February when Israel shot down an Iranian drone that entered its airspace from Syria and in turn lost one of its F-16 fighter jets to a Syrian regime anti-aircraft missile.
Western diplomats and the UN have repeatedly warned such skirmishes could easily erupt into a devastating full-blown conflict.
Israel has largely stayed out of the war in Syria for the past seven years, but has laid down a series of what it calls ‘‘red lines’’ aimed mainly at limiting the presence in Syria of both Iran and its proxy group Hizbollah.
One of those red lines is to pre- vent Iran from using its alliance with the Assad regime to establish any permanent military bases in Syria.
‘‘Iran continues to try to cross those red lines,’’ said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, at the Munich security conference last month. ‘‘Israel will not allow the Iranian regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.’’
Last December Israeli jets and ground missiles struck an alleged Iranian base in the Syrian city of al-Qiswah, eight miles south of Damascus.
Satellite images taken of the alQiswah facility before it was destroyed show a white hangar around 30m long and 20m wide.
ImageSat International said its satellites showed a pair of similar hangars at the newly spotted base at Jabal ash Sharqi, north-west of Damascus. The Israeli government’s policy is usually to neither confirm nor deny its strikes in Syria and senior officials rarely talk openly about its military activities against Iran and Hizbollah.
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister, played down reports of the new base yesterday. ‘‘We are listening and following the events. We will also act in the international arena to achieve everything possible,’’ he said.
Maps published by the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, show Iran has dozens of long-term military facilities across Syria, ranging from headquarters to training facilities and drone bases. Israel has been unable to stop the proliferation of Iranian bases, despite periodic strikes.
Repeated diplomatic efforts by Netanyahu to try to convince Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, to rein in Iran’s expansion in Syria have so far failed to win over the Kremlin.
A senior former Israeli air force commander said that in the absence of a political agreement with Russia on limiting Iran’s presence in Syria, Israel’s military would use air strikes try to ‘‘raise the cost’’ to Iran.
‘‘An attack aimed at Israel from Iran would be very inefficient and Israel would have a long time to prepare. But an attack from Syria would be a different ball game because they are dramatically closer,’’ the commander said.
– Telegraph Group