NEWSRAEL: There have been too many reports in the last half year to ignore. The Assad regime has two goals: 1) To try to force Iran out of Syria, or to lessen its control and 2) To keep out of the war Israel is fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Luckily for Assad - these 2 goals travel along the same path.
"EFFORTS TO KEEP THE IRANIANS AWAY FROM THE CAPITAL"
According to sources in Syria, since last September the Syrian regime began to exert indirect pressure on the Iranians in order to keep them away from Damascus and its rural areas.
The source stated that the officers of the State Security Branch delivered verbal warnings to Iranian military advisers and the heads of militias affiliated with Iran about possible infiltrations by Israeli intelligence.
The security arm responsible for the capital provided these figures with a set of advice, such as changing the locations of the residences of Iranian officials and meeting sites, as well as changing the communication devices and cars they use for their movement inside Syria.
"THE REGIME'S STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH ESCALATION"
According to the source, the Syrian regime feared that Iran and the militias supported by it would use Syrian territory as a support front for Hezbollah, which caused it to transfer intelligence information to the Mossad, while exposing the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in Damascus, and its countryside as well as in the southern provinces of Syria.
The Syria TV website learned from private sources that the Syrian regime prevented Hezbollah from recruiting Syrian fighters to its ranks in southern Lebanon, under the pretext of receiving intelligence information about the intention of the opposition factions to launch military operations against areas under its control.
The Syrian regime takes a cautious approach in dealing with the Israeli escalation towards it by adopting a strategy based on ignoring and avoiding opening a front against Israel, considering that every military front apart from the internal fronts is a secondary war that it does not want to enter or ignite.
Despite the Israeli army's incursion into Syrian territory and the raking of agricultural lands near Quneitra yesterday, Sunday, the Syrian regime refrained from a military response or diplomatic condemnation, while the governor of Quneitra, Mu'atz Abu al-Nasr Jamran, denied all the reports that were circulated about the invasion incident, saying that The inhabitants of the border villages live their normal lives.