Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The talks on a settlement of the situation in Syria should start in Switzerland on January 22nd. It is still unclear whether Iran will take part in them or not. However, the UN Secretary General of Ban ki-Moon is sure that inviting the Islamic Republic “will positively influence the result” of the talks. Recently Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that “the conference will fail and will have no achievements without Iran’s presence.”
At the same time, the main Iranian opponent, Israel, seems to change its position on the Syrian problem.
The head of the Operations Division of the Headquarters of the Israeli Defense Forces General Joav Har-Even made a statement which indirectly said that Israel condemns Bashar Assad’s regime for mass murders of its citizens, but at the same time it is interested in its staying in power.”
“At the moment more than 20,000 militants of the world jihad are acting on the territory of Syria. If they manage to overthrow Assad’s regime, the next target will be Israel. It should be realized that these people came to Syria not to “bring freedom for the nation.” They have long-term plans for the future, a clear strategy. At the moment they are establishing a wide base of support among civilians in Syria. They came here to stay. I don’t want to threaten anyone, but they are already close to our borders,” General Har-Even said.
According to him, the world jihad is being closely studied by the Israeli military intelligence service at the moment, but there is no certain plan of a struggle against the organization.
