Zeinab Essa The game rules have changed. Few words ...but they truly reflect, the new scene of the region. On Sunday dawn, "Israel" attacked Damascus country side under the alleged pretext of banning the delivery of sophisticated weapons to Hizbullah. Hours passed, the Syrian leadership sent clear messages to all who might be concerned: "We are ready for the response and will hand the Lebanese resistance more advanced missiles." Meanwhile, Damascus' visitors revealed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is comfortable and to transform Syria into a Resistance State. On Friday, Hizbullah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah returned the Syrian salutation with a better greeting: "Ready to receive your weapons and to back the Syrian popular resistance to liberate the Occupied Golan." In an attempt to shed light on the aspects of the Resistance axis' response to the "Israeli" aggression on Syria, moqawama.org interviewed the retired General in the Lebanese Army, Elias Farhat. Resistance Historical Response "By its recent attack on Syria, "Israel" crumbed the "separation-of-forces" agreement as well as the rules of conflict established since 1974," he clarified, and noted that the "aggression forms a blatant violation to the UN agreements." Thus, according to Farhat the Syrian response came to say: "If "Israel" seeks to change the rules, so let it be."  He further elaborated: "Syria is disband from the old new rules [particularly the truce agreement] and it will continue to arm the Lebanese resistance in parallel to working on liberating the Occupied Golan."Moreover, the military expert predicted that any new "Israeli" aggression on Syria will receive a direct, firm, and crushing response from the resistance axis. He also commented on what Sayyed Nasrallah had declared: "We, the Lebanese resistance, are ready to receive any sort of qualitative arms, even if it is going to break the regional balance. We are ready to receive any sort of qualitative arms, even if it is going to break the regional balance." On the type of "balance changing" arms, Farhat explained what is already meant by regional balance. "Earlier and on more than one occasion Sayyed Nasrallah declared that the resistance owns more than 50,000 weapons that are able to hit any target in Occupied Palestine," the General mentioned. He recalled that the resistance Leader that the maritime economic zone in the Zionist entity as well as Eilat are under the resistance fire line. "Thus, land and maritime missiles are part of the regional balance and resistance deterrence capabilities." Thus, "the anti-space missiles are the weapons that might break the existing balance, particularly that "Israeli" jets continue to breach the Lebanese air-space sovereignty on daily basis." Such a development, according to the retired general, will change the region's face. ""Israel" will have no more space superiority. The balance on land will be accompanied with another in the space," he added. Meanwhile, he stressed that "In any new confrontation, the resistance weapons are to reach all of the Occupied Palestinian territories and the "Israeli" jets won't find it easy to breach the Lebanese air sovereignty." Based on ground facts, Farhat confirmed that "we are in a new critical stage in the Arab- "Israeli" conflict. It is a historical moment. " On the resistance's readiness to support the Syrian Popular Resistance to liberate the Occupied Golan, the military expert affirmed that "this is part of the reciprocate to Syria's assistance to the resistance." In the same context, Farhat revealed some aspects of Al-Assad's announcement that Syrian would be transformed into a State of Resistance. "This means that Syria seeks to face the global war on it as well as the "Israeli" threats by changing the infrastructure of its traditional military to a resistance group ones." Opening Golan Front..."Israel" Facing Existential Threat  For his part, the Coordinator of the Safety Net for Research and Strategic Studies Anis Nakash indicated that the Syrian readiness for liberating the Occupied Golan reflects that the Zionist enemy failed in breaking the Syrian will.In remarks to al-Ahed news, Nakash hailed "the new strategic development that crosses the geographic boundaries and that the Syrian leadership is no more committed to the truce agreement." "Sayyed Nasrallah's announcement of readiness to support the Syrian popular resistance is very dangerous and serious, particularly on the level of training the Syrian people to defend their land," he stressed. The military analyst further stated "the expansion of the geographical boundaries of the resistance from Lebanon to the Golan means that the resistance redirected the compass of war front war to include not only the Lebanese lands but also the Syrian territories." "Both the Syrian regime strategic response and the resistance capabilities awoke "Israel" from its daydreams and made it realize that its existence faces a serious threat, given the strength of the resistance," he added. Moreover, Nakash agreed with Farhat that the Russian stance to provide Syria with strategic Alexander and other advanced missiles means that the US is unable to respond the new regional developments. "This sends another message to "Israel" over readiness to break its qualitative edge." Source: moqawama.org |
Syria's Uncertain Air Defenses: "We do not know"
"... We do not know if Syria has seriously tried to halt IAF attacks. Syria has not been able to use these systems effectively against Israel since the early 1980s. Syria may be willing to wait out limited IAF strikes rather than reveal the electronic order of battle and send signals that would help Israel develop improved methods of suppression during a limited attack...., ..., ...This makes the Syrian forces vulnerable to U.S. military action to enforce some form of no fly/no move zone, but Syria still has a much larger and more capable mix of forces than Libya possessed. It would take a massive U.S. air and cruise missile attack to suppress it quickly and would be difficult for even two carrier groups to carry out and sustain. As a result, the United States would certainly desire land-bases from allies like Jordan and Turkey and the use of Qatari and/or Saudi bases.
Syria could also choose to ride out a U.S. threat and then constantly push the U.S. by appearing to prepare its forces, locking on radars, etc. These are tactics that would stress any U.S. forces enforcing a zone. Syria also knows all about them from U.S. operations in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. In short, Syria does not have strong air defenses by U.S. standards but it is still very large. It would take a major U.S. air effort to accomplish quickly and the United States might well take some losses if Syria fought back and would have to have a sustained presence if Syria chose not to fight...."
(AFP) WARSAW, Poland: "Russia is completing its delivery of surface-to-air missiles to Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, a move the United States has called destabilising.
"Russia is not planning to sell -- Russia has sold and signed contracts a long time ago, and is completing supplies of the equipment -- which is anti-aircraft systems, according to the already signed contracts," Lavrov told reporters in Warsaw.
He added that "this is not forbidden by any international laws, this is defensive weaponry."
"It is designed for Syria as an importer to have in this situation an opportunity to defend itself from air strikes which, as we know, is not a completely fantastical scenario," he said.....
A day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned against any Russian missiles sales to Syria saying it would be "destabilising" to the region ..."