Iran threatens Israel during Russia summit.

Iran Threatens Israel During Russia Summit Amid Gaza Rocket Barrage

Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad to Provide Launchpad for New Attacks Against Israel

A senior Iranian official has predicted that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will provide a launchpad for new attacks against Israel during a Russia-hosted summit. “We are sure that the Syrian Army will respond to the Israeli raids at a proper time,” Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian said Wednesday.

Israeli officials have conducted airstrikes in Syria for years, with the stated goal of preventing Iranian forces from establishing military outposts on Israeli borders. Abdollahian renewed that threat from Moscow as Assad gained re-admission to the Arab League, a diplomatic coup for the pariah regime, and Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group in Gaza.

Iranian Officials Hope for U.S. Special Forces Withdrawal from Northern Syria

Iranian officials hope that the summit in Moscow will increase pressure for a withdrawal of United States special forces from northern Syria, where they fought alongside Kurdish militia to dismantle the Islamic State’s caliphate. The meeting was attended by Turkey, a NATO ally but also a fierce opponent of U.S. cooperation with the Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish militias.

Efforts to Contain the Conflict to a Clash with Islamic Jihad

Israeli Defense Forces targeted the Islamic Jihad militant leaders on Tuesday in an operation that reportedly killed 12 Palestinian civilians in addition to the three commanders. The militant group responded by firing more than 300 rockets into Israel. Their barrage raised the prospect of a more intense conflict, but Egypt reportedly has been working to broker a ceasefire, and Israeli officials have signaled that they want to avoid a wider clash with Hamas, the more powerful terrorist group in Gaza.

“We are striking who is launching rockets at us,” IDF spokesman David Hagari told the Times of Israel. “Islamic Jihad is leading this rocket fire. If other factions join, we will respond against them too.”

Israeli Efforts to Degrade Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program

Such celebrations of terrorist attacks against Israel correspond to intensifying Israeli efforts to degrade Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which has continued to progress despite President Joe Biden’s desire to rehabilitate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Yet Netanyahu has avoided a major clash with Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist group that looms as Iran’s most powerful proxy on Israel’s borders and reportedly possesses a vast arsenal of rockets and a growing stockpile of Iranian precision-guided munitions.

“As Israel has taken the fight inside Iran, not just against proxies on its border, Iran [is] now trying to back its proxy muscles to distract Israel, to keep them busy on their borders and away from operations inside Iran,” the Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior adviser Richard Goldberg told the Washington Examiner.

Use of David’s Sling to Down a Rocket Fired from Gaza

Lebanese Hezbollah’s potential to bombard Israel in retaliation for a major military strike against Iran adds to the significance of the IDF’s use of David’s Sling, a new and previously unproven medium-range air defense system, to down a rocket fired from Gaza on Wednesday.

“The decision to activate David’s Sling and demonstrate its successful capability for the first time is a clear message to other actors, most specifically Hezbollah, and ultimately to Tehran to let them know that the Israeli layered defense capability has improved and that they are not afraid of a confrontation on their northern border, should it come to that,” said Goldberg, the FDD expert.

Egyptian officials reportedly have worked to broker a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but the two sides continued to exchange blows Wednesday even after initial reports of a deal.