From the Liveblog of
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Gantz says more pressure needed to free Syria and Lebanon from Iranian influence
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz says that now is the “time to free Lebanon and Syria” from Iran, now that Tehran has been weakened over 14 months of war against it and its proxies.
Addressing reporters alongside regional council chairman Uri Kellner in the Golan Heights along the Syrian border, Gantz says that the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria marks a “strategic turning point in the entire Middle East.”
Israel has long prepared defensive infrastructure in the north against the Syrian military threat and now it needs to “strengthen the defense of the communities themselves and the buffer zone, and monitor developments,” Gantz says.
“But no less important than that, we need to look beyond Syria. Iran is no longer a reliable supporter [of regional proxies], Hezbollah has been severely damaged and [Iran’s] influence has been weakening both in Lebanon and in Syria. We need to continue the pressure on it and for local actors in both Syria and Lebanon to free themselves from the Iranian yoke,” Gantz continues, adding that “in the long term, it will be possible to expand the Abraham Accords in order to establish a buffer against Iran.”
The Abraham Accords was a series of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries in the region. Efforts have long been underway to have Saudi Arabia join as well.
