Patience snapped: Russia made a choice between Iran and Israel in Syria

The attack on the oil facilities of Saudi Arabia once again intensified the confrontation in the Middle East, which has recently faded somewhat and began to turn into something sluggish and permanent. Despite the seemingly conciliatory statements made so far from Washington, the region again smelled of gunpowder, and almost stronger than in all recent times. At this difficult moment, our country, unwittingly, has to decide on the question of which side it is ready to take with this or that development of the situation.





In fact, to make a choice between the two states with which she tried until recently to maintain smooth and balanced partnerships. Iran or Israel? Certain points give reason to believe that a concrete decision in the Kremlin has already been taken. In whose favor?

Syrian Rift

Relations between Russia and Israel, which for a long time simply had no cause for mutual claims, in recent years have not only been built on the principles of mutual understanding and respect, but were, one might say, quite friendly. Moscow could “slow down” the contracts for the supply of armaments to the Arab countries that were profitable for it, or even abandon them altogether if Tel Aviv expressed concern about this. Israel, in turn, did not become a participant in the campaign launched by Washington and obligatory for all US allies on political defamation and economic pressure on our country, which began after the annexation of Crimea to Russia. A certain “special relationship” between the leaders of the two states, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and our President Vladimir Putin, played a significant role here. The leader of the Jewish state was always a welcome guest in Moscow, took part in the Victory Parades. It would seem that everything was just wonderful and the situation was returning to those times when the military of our countries (or rather, Israel and the USSR at that time) looked at each other through the sights and participated in battles against each other, it was impossible to even imagine ...

This whole idyll has been threatened since the start of the military operation conducted by our country in Syria at the request of its government. It was then that the status quo between Moscow and Tel Aviv began to undergo increasingly serious tests. And the reason here was Iran, or rather, the presence in Syria and participation in the fight against the “Islamic State” of both its regular formations and irregular groups supported by Tehran. For Israel (which is typical, not at all eager to fight with ISIS), the "Iranian question" has long ago turned into an idefix at the level of almost paranoia. Tel Aviv categorically does not intend to put up with the presence of armed representatives of the country, which they consider their enemy No. 1 in the immediate vicinity of their own border, nor, moreover, with the strengthening of the position and importance of Tehran in the region. The Israelis began to “solve the problem” in their usual manner — by regularly arranging flights, and delivering lightning strikes against objects and vehicles that they believed the Iranians used for military purposes. Everything would be fine - but the places attacked by the IDF were in Syria. Over time, the actions of the Israeli military became increasingly impudent, if not impudent. Most importantly, the interests of not only Damascus, but also Moscow, were completely ignored.

Patience burst?

In this situation, both the command of the Russian aerospace forces grouped in Syria, and even the top leadership of both our Armed Forces and the state as a whole, showed enormous, obviously incredible restraint. According to many, even excessive. For a long time, instead of forcing the Israelis to restrain their ardor with military force, Moscow followed the path of persuasion and exhortation. In 2015, a special “hot line” was created to prevent incidents, along which messages about upcoming air strikes were to be transmitted. However, IDF representatives abused this manifestation of mutual trust in the most unscrupulous way - “warnings” followed literally at the very last moment, when it was already physically impossible to take any measures not only to prevent the attack, but even to get the Russian military out of attack. . All this ended in the most tragic way - the death in September 2018 of the reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces Il-20 and its entire crew. The formidable “final warnings” from Moscow that followed did not particularly scare Tel Aviv. As well as the delivery of the S-300 SAM system to the Syrians that followed almost instantly, against which they objected literally with foam at the mouth. Having calmed down for some time, the vultures from the IDF, accustomed to impunity, only modified and improved the tactics of the air raids, but they did not even think of abandoning them. Moreover, in addition, they began to "try for strength" our air defense ...

Now, it seems, the Kremlin’s patience has completely snapped. No matter how much Netanyahu said at the end of his last Moscow visit that due to his personal friendship with Vladimir Vladimirovich, there could be no talk of any “clashes” between the military of the two countries in Syria, in many Western media, and, above all, in the Israeli Jerusalem Post, the exact opposite information was published. It turns out that during the negotiations with the Israeli prime minister, Putin did not warn, but threatened: another attempt to “bomb” a little object on the territory of Syria, whether Iranian or not, and the IDF made it would be shot down without any pity. And not by the Syrians, but by Russian air defense or air forces. However, from now on, the Syrian military does not prohibit hitting air raiders for defeat. Direct confirmation of the absolute reliability of this information can be considered reports of at least three Israeli air strikes already thwarted on Syria. In all cases, fighter aircraft of the Russian aerospace forces (according to some sources, the Su-35S from the Khmeimim base) rose to intercept IDF combat vehicles. All this, however, did not prevent the same Netanyahu from once again expressing that “Tel Aviv does not intend to put up with the threats emanating from Iran,” and even clarify that it is “aggression from Syrian territory.” Obviously, it still doesn’t reach.

However, judging by the results of the recent parliamentary elections, the current Prime Minister Netanyahu is already political "Yesterday" of Israel. With whom in Tel Aviv Russia will have to deal in the future, we will see. One way or another, but further "multi-vector" for our country in the Middle East is hardly possible. And, by the way, another confirmation of which side Moscow chose was the words of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who recently announced that a final agreement was reached between his country and Russia, as well as Turkey and Iraq, on settlements in national currencies , using, as he said, "an alternative SWIFT payment system." In fact, in this case we can only talk about the Russian SPFS. The Iranian leader was very optimistic about this event, calling it "the beginning of a serious struggle against the dollar around the world," which should lead the United States "to weaken and lose hegemony." Well, well, if so. In any case, against the backdrop of the thickening geopolitical clouds of Russia, it is much more logical to choose allies among the "best enemies" of the United States than among their faithful vassals and satellites.