TEL AVIV (Realist English). Eyal Zamir, one of the leading candidates to take over as the next chief of the Israeli military, warned in a report that Iran has managed to establish a significant foothold in Syria and called for more assassinations of Iranian military officials to curb such efforts.
The Israeli general is now working as a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In the 74-page report “Countering Iran’s Regional Strategy”, he emphasizes that Iran has managed to create a comprehensive military infrastructure in Syria, deploy missiles and UAVs on Syrian territory that pose a direct threat to Israel.
According to the IDF General, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is the backbone of the regime and the main means by which it seeks to dominate the region.” Eyal Zamir listed several ways Israel and its allies could “curb the IRGC’s efforts to strengthen Iranian proxies” in the Middle East.
“Target the organization’s leadership, commanders, and key operatives who are behind the planning and execution of terrorist attacks and subversion; issue international arrest warrants of designated individuals; and conduct targeted killings against individuals plotting attacks (the Soleimani model),” he said in the report, referring to the 2020 US assassination of the head of the IRGC’s expeditionary Quds Force.
He said more action should be taken to carry out attacks against Iranian facilities, including missile silos and manufacturing plants, as well as Iran’s air defenses and its supply lines to its proxies.
“Interdict and disrupt supply lines — on land, in the air, and at sea — that the IRGC uses to support its proxies and militias,” he said, detailing Tehran’s use of Syria as a transportation hub for weapons sent to its proxies in the region, primarily Hezbollah.
