Israel acts decisively in Syria

Audacious Israeli air strikes targeting a major Syrian military facility producing chemical weapons and the precision-guided missiles needed to deliver them provide a timely demonstration of what so-called “red lines” should mean when confronted with global security challenges. The attacks on the facility at Masyaf, in western Syria, came nine days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of Iranian efforts to use Syria and Lebanon as “war fronts” for its goal of eradicating Israel. “This is something Israel cannot accept,” he said.

Unlike Barack Obama when he made his pointless and ultimately highly damaging warning that the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people in 2013 crossed a “red line”, but then did nothing, Mr Netanyahu meant what he said — and he acted resolutely to make good on his word. The Masyaf base, with Iranian forces as well those of the Assad regime, is a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, a Syrian government agency the US and others have accused of producing chemical weapons such as the sarin gas used in April’s horrifying attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Coinciding with Israel’s strike, the UN finally placed the blame for that attack squarely on the Assad regime.

Israel believes the Masyaf facility also was being used to equip Iranian-sponsored terrorist organisation Hezbollah for attacks on Israel. As usual for operations outside its borders, Israel has not commented on the air strikes. But Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned “everything possible will be done to prevent the existence of a Shi’ite corridor from Tehran to Damascus”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is said to have been left in no doubt when he visited Israel last month that the Jewish state was determined to snuff out the chemical weapons and missile threat.

Israel’s action came 10 years to the day since Operation Orchard, when it launched air strikes to level Syria’s nascent nuclear facility at Deir ez-Zor, which was being built with North Korean and Iranian help. It sends a message to Syria, Iran and Hezbollah they would be unwise to ignore.