By J.M. Phelps (One News Now)
Wednesday’s announcement for the U.S. to withdraw all its military forces from Syria marks an abrupt end to America’s strategy in the region – and sparks major concern from Israel, one of America’s greatest allies.
OneNewsNow spoke with Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi about the announcement. Zehavi, a former intelligence officer with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) within the IDF Northern Command, contends the move to extract a few thousand forces from Syria “will give Iran the ability to gain a massive stronghold in the region.”
As founder of the ALMA Research and Development Center in Israel, she attests that “a ground corridor to transfer weapons and soldiers from Tehran to Damascus and Beirut” will finally be established.
Zehavi says the efforts of Iran “to build a ground corridor – consisting of highways, roads and railways – began upon the regime change” in Iraq in 2003. However, the Syrian civil war put Iran’s efforts on hold.
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Although ISIS was vastly incapacitated in Iraq and the greater majority of its territories were captured in Syria, Zehavi explains “[these] circumstances actually allowed Iranians to develop a ground corridor from Tehran to Damascus, through Iraq.” It is through this corridor, she says, that the Iranians will be “enabled to transfer weapons beyond Damascus” and all the way “to Israel’s northern border – into the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon.” The former IDF officer identifies three potential routes that would provide a “continuous road-link” connecting Iran with Syria and Lebanon.
According to Zehavi, these routes potentially include a northern route (Tehran-Mosel-Aleppo-Latakia), a middle route (Tehran-Baghdad-Al-Bukamal-Damascus-Beirut), and a southern route (Tehran-Baghdad-Tanf-Damascus-Beirut). In addition, she says there are “multiple reports which disclose an Iraqi-Syrian-Iranian agreement to construct a highway between Tehran and Damascus.” Railway infrastructure “between Iran and Syria via Iraq could be completed within the next two years, further enabling Iran’s nefarious activity.”
Zehavi argues that U.S. military forces in the region provide stability and a deterrence for Iran to build strongholds. However, she says the free access to any of these described land routes “would allow Iranian forces and supporters of the Shiite axis, like Hezbollah, to move freely in the region, enabling the transfer of weapons and manpower to accomplished – for the first time in history – via an accessible ground route.”
“The presence of the United States in the region provided control over routes between Syria and Iraq, keeping the path from falling into the hands of the Iranians,” she tells OneNewsNow – adding that “the southern route is considered the shortest and fastest route between Tehran and Damascus and has been closed to Iranian traffic because of U.S presence at the border crossing in Tanf.”
As long as the U.S. remained in control of these routes and their access points, Iran was unable to use them to their advantage. Without an American presence, however, “the efforts to stop Iran from supporting terror against Israel – and the Middle East – has been seriously hampered,” she laments.
In conclusion, Zehavi expresses her disappointment, describing U.S. withdrawal from Syria at this time as “a bad decision” by the Trump administration. She emphasizes that America’s presence in Syria is “the only thing that has stopped the Iranians from having access to the ground corridor that will only serve to strengthen Iran ….”
A withdrawal, she argues, means Iran wins – and Israel braces for another long-term struggle.
J.M. Phelps is a Christian activist and journalist based in the Southeastern U.S. He is also editor and publisher of the website Lantern of Liberty.
Originally published by One News Now on Thursday, December 20, 2018. Image of map courtesy of the ALMA Research and Development Center .
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