Homeland Security Portal
Syria
What Role Should Israel Play in the War in Syria?
Historically, Israel has avoided open conflict in Syria in order avoid a direct Iranian intervention and the transfer of military supplies to Lebanon. As the war escalates, Israel has moved towards a more open method of conflict with Iranian forces. Seeing that Israel is already an integral part of the war in Syria, should Israel only be satisfied with a direct strike against Iranian activity or should it expand the scope of its combat directive? Read More »
Syrian Defense Capabilities Improve
As American-British-French air raids become more frequent and pressure mounts on Moscow to protect Russian allies, the Russian government has announced that it will be increasing its existing military aid package to Syria. Read More »
Bashar Assad’s Pyrrhic Victory in Syria
Six years later, the Alawite regime is on life-support provided by Russia, Iran, Hizbullah, and Iranian satellite proxies. Still, the latest arrangements between Russia and the United States have convinced Bashar Assad that unless he is struck by lightning or he becomes victim of an act of terrorism, he is here to stay. Read More »
The Future Partition of Syria – An Overview
Looking at the present map of Syria and taking into account the fact that four major players are “calling the shots” in Syria (Russia, the United States, Iran, and Turkey), it is logical to conclude that the future partition of Syria will be the result of the interaction between those four. Read More »
Does the U.S. Attack in Syria Risk a Regional War?
Commentators in the Arab world fail to find a logical explanation for the behavior of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his decision to use chemical weapons against rebels in the Idlib region. Read More »
Why the Islamic State Is in Retreat
Two years ago the Islamic State’s blitz assault across a swath of land as big as the United Kingdom led to the establishment of the self-proclaimed Caliphate and fragmented both Syria and Iraq. Today, the American-led and the Russian-led coalitions succeeded to contain the advance of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq because of several factors: attrition, manpower, firepower inferiority, and diminishing financial support. Read More »
Explaining the Islamic State Phenomenon
The Islamic State is a terrorist state with almost all of a typical state’s governing elements. ISIS rules today over a swath of land bigger than the United Kingdom, with a population of almost 10 million. Never in the modern history of the Muslim world has a conflict drawn so many jihadists, who seek to participate in the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate to rule the world after the defeat in battle of the Western powers and their local Arab allies. Read More »
Terror Is Terror Is Terror
Iran keeps promoting its long-term strategic policy in Syria; it views the country as an integral component of its national security. Russia, which has moved urgently to help Assad’s regime survive, has paid a heavy price with the downing of a Russian passenger plane by the Islamic State. Iran is exploiting the West’s weakness, especially the United States’ fecklessness and lack of a clear policy on the Middle East’s future in general and on Assad’s in particular. Read More »
Are There Any Moderate Rebels in Syria?
In the Syrian Civil War, the CIA has assisted those it considers "moderate rebels." In the face of this policy, The Free Syrian Army has chosen to cease its cooperation with other, more Islamist groups like Ahrar Al-Sham, ceding its role as the leader in the fight against the Assad regime to said Islamist groups. Many of the different Islamist coalitions present on the ground today can hardly be defined as being "a moderate opposition." Read More »
Iran’s Stake in Syria
According to Hojjat al-Islam Mehdi Taeb, a former senior official of Iran's Basij militia, Iran's line of defense passes through Syria, and that is why the Iranian government proposed creating battalions of Basij-style militias in Syria.The crisis in Syria is gradually turning from a protracted regional crisis into an international one. For Iran, Syria constitutes the first line of defense against Israel, and also a line of defense for the Shiite population in Lebanon against Islamic State incursion. Read More »
The Disintegration of Syria and Its Impact on Israel
Syria's fragmentation into separate, battling enclaves is intensifying. The two main enclaves are "central Syria," controlled by the Assad regime, and the Islamic State. The nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers has boosted Iran's capacity to support the Assad regime. Iran and Hizbullah's attempts to create a base for terror activity against Israel from the northern Golan Heights continue, relying on released terrorist Samir Kuntar and Druze elements. Read More »
Implications of the Fall of Key Syrian and Iraqi Cities to ISIS
The fall of the major cities of Palmyra in Syria and Ramadi in Iraq to the Islamic State is part of the disintegration of the Middle East’s nation-states. Assad-controlled Syria has shrunk to half its size and lost control of almost all of its borders. The Islamic State (IS) finds itself almost within shelling distance from Baghdad and bordering Saudi Arabia and Jordan, raising acute fears in both countries. The battles have proven that the Shiite armies had no resolve or will to fight the Sunni jihadists. This leaves open the option of Iran and its proxies enlarging their involvement. Read More »
Israeli Security Policy in Syria
The attempted Hizbullah attack thwarted in the northern Golan Heights on April 26, 2015, and the air strikes apparently carried out by the Israeli Air Force on April 21 and 24 against military targets in Syria, as reported in Arab media, join a series of similar incidents over the past three years. Apart from isolated cases, Israel has avoided directly responding to reports on the strikes and merely made declarations about its general policy. Hizbullah's involvement in Syria creates legitimacy for anti-Lebanese activity by Sunni radicals. Its deep involvement in the Syrian civil war is nowhere near its conclusion and will continue to exact a heavy price. Read More »
The Syrian Constellation and the Geneva 2 Peace Talks
Since the Egyptian Revolution, many of Egypt’s 2.2 million Shiites began demanding rights after the repression of the Mubarak era. However, these requests have been met with threats from hardline Salafi groups. The election of Mohammad Morsi radicalized the issue. In response, Iran has distanced itself from Egyptian Shiites. However, with the growing sectarian divide between Sunni and Shia, this could easily strain relations between Egypt and Iran and ignite a regional flashpoint. Read More »
Syria: Lessons from Past Weapons Inspections
In light of the Russian/US agreement to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, the world’s accumulated hands-on experience in Middle Eastern arms control in Iraq, Iran, and Libya should be remembered. Read More »