A nation must think before it acts.
On Feb. 10 Iran sent a drone into Israeli territory. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) promptly retaliated by ordering a raid against the command control center in Syria from which Iran sent the drone. In turn, Syrian anti-aircraft managed to shoot down an Israeli aircraft that crashed in Northern Israel. It’s the first time since 1982 that this has happened.
Israel then launched a massive attack on 122 Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria from which all its planes returned unscathed. This sequence marked the first time Iran and Israel have directly clashed and duly brings the prospect of a war between them over Syria into focus.
Iran’s determination to destroy Israel has never slacked since the current regime came to power in 1979 and Tehran’s objectives in Syria continue to confirm this strand of its policy. Beyond returning the war criminal Bashear Assad to full power over all of Syria, Iran’s other vital interest here is the creation of an unbroken route from Iran to the Mediterranean and Lebanon by which it could continue to supply Syria and Iran’s terrorist proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, with weapons directed at Israel.