by Ruby Henley
President Trump exited the Iran Nuclear Deal earlier today, and now we are hearing reports of activity in Iran, Israel, and Syria. The movement between countries began as the Syrian media accused Israel of launching missiles at a target near Damascus on Tuesday.
Of course, this was reported shortly after President Trump announced he was exiting the Iran Nuclear Deal. This prompted Israel to go on high alert, and I would have expected nothing less of Israel. It only makes sense that Israel would be preparing for a strike from Iran, and that Iran would be preparing for the same from Israel.
The Israeli military said that, upon identifying “irregular activity” by Iranian forces in Syria, it instructed civic authorities on the Golan Heights to ready bomb shelters, deployed new defenses and mobilized some reservist forces.
Israel has been accused of carrying out a series of deadly strikes on bases in Syria out of which Iranian forces operate, as it is concerned over the growing presence of Tehran’s forces and those of Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria.
In a chilling announcement Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz has indicated that Israel was willing to “eliminate” Syrian President Bashar Assad if he continued to “allow Iran to operate” from Syria. “It’s unacceptable that Assad sits quietly in his palace and rebuild his regime while allowing Syria to be turned into a base for attacks on Israel,” Steinitz said as quoted by Ynet.
The minister claimed that while so far Israel hasn’t gotten involved in the Syrian conflict, it is willing to topple the Syrian government. “If Assad lets Iran turn Syria into a military base against us, to attack us from Syrian territory, he should know that will be the end of him,” Steinitz said.
This is a bold statement, but actually it is clear that Assad will not ask Iran to leave his Country; while we know that Iran/Israel tensions are escalating. It seems to be the shared destiny between the two Countries. We can easily perceive this to be the beginning of World War III.
Just why did President Trump deem it necessary to withdraw the United States from the Iran agreement? One might say it had been a campaign promise, and he was simply keeping that promise. After all politicians owe their donors, and their donors expect to collect.
Politico reported that the most threatening line in Trump’s October UN speech—he would cancel Washington’s participation in the JCPOA if Congress and U.S. allies did not bend to his efforts to renegotiate it – came directly from John Bolton.
The line was added to Trump’s speech after Bolton reached the President by phone while he was visiting with Republican mega donor Sheldon Adelson. Adelson was one of Trump’s biggest supporters – and a supporter of Israel. Bolton urged Trump to include a line in his remarks noting that he reserved the right to scrap the agreement entirely, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Bottom line is Donald Trump is a politician, who has certain alliances – just like all politicians do. He is going to fulfill campaign promises to his supporters first and foremost. America will pay the price, as we always do.