In phone call, Iran’s Raisi, Syria’s Assad tout ‘weakness’ and ‘collapse’ of Israel
Leaders proclaim ‘the world is changing in favor of the axis of resistance’ against Israel; call comes day after barrage of rockets fired from Syria toward Israel
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke via phone on Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad, with the leaders both touting what they see as the approaching “collapse” of the State of Israel.
The call came a day after six rockets were fired from Syria toward Israel, and amid a volley of rocket fire by Hamas from both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
According to Raisi’s office, the Iranian leader told his Syrian counterpart that “the world is changing in favor of the axis of resistance” against Israel.
“The crimes of this regime are a sign of its weakness and desperation,” Raisi was said to tell Assad during their conversation.
Assad responded that “today, the signs of collapse in the Zionist society have been revealed, which is the result of the resistance and especially the standing of the Palestinian nation,” according to a statement from Raisi’s office.
According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, Assad and Raisi agreed that the Israeli policies and activities on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount holy site in recent days “confirm the weakness and failure of this entity in front of the strength of the resistance and the courage of the Palestinian people.”
Last week, police said they had entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque after masked youths barricaded themselves inside the mosque atop the Temple Mount with fireworks, clubs and rocks and refused to come out peacefully. Officers apparently believed the group intended to assault Jews visiting the mount on Passover Eve.
Video of police apparently beating Palestinians in the mosque went viral and sparked outrage across the Muslim world. Police said in response that they had come under direct fire.
On Saturday night and Sunday, six rockets were launched from southern Syria at the Golan Heights in two separate barrages hours apart — days after a volley of rockets was also fired at Israel from Lebanon.
In response, the IDF said it carried out artillery and drone strikes in southern Syria, targeting the launchers that had been used to fire the rockets. Later, Israeli fighter jets carried out additional airstrikes near the capital Damascus.
In recent weeks, the IDF has reportedly ramped up its ongoing campaign of airstrikes in Syria, carrying out near-daily aerial bombings of sites said to be linked to Iranian militias.
According to SANA, Raisi and Assad both stressed “the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.”
Raisi spoke just two days ago with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — an ostensible Israeli ally — who told him that “the Islamic world should be united against Israel’s attacks in Palestine,” his office said.
The stance represents an apparent shift for Erdogan, who had been leading a policy over the past year that has seen Turkey warm its ties with Israel. During that time though, Turkish officials warned that deteriorations in the Israeli-Palestinian situation would lead to similar trends in Jerusalem-Ankara ties.
Iran has also been warming ties with Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, a move that has put Israel on edge, as the once-ostracized Tehran reestablishes relations with power-broker Riyadh.
