Assad not expected to retaliate for felling of Syrian fighter jet by Israel

Syria is too busy consolidating its control in the north and in the south to dare open another front with Israel, said former IDF intelligence head. 

By: World Israel News Staff

Syria has no interest in opening another front with Israel and, therefore, will not attempt to retaliate for Israel’s downing of a Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet Tuesday.

That was the military evaluation offered by former head of IDF intelligence Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin during an interview Wednesday on Army Radio.

Yadlin, former deputy commander of the Israel Air Force and present executive director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, said that Syria has a number of more pressing goals that require the Syrian military’s full attention.

These goals include wresting control of the Idlib region from rebels and ISIS forces and finishing off the reassertion of Syrian control in the south along Israel’s border.

Yadlin noted that previous attacks against Syria attributed to Israel have been much more severe than Tuesday’s felling of a Syrian fighter plane.

After each attack, which included an airstrike on the T-4 airbase near Homs earlier this month, Syria has either issued aempty threats or ignored the incident altogether.

The IDF said that the Syrian plane destroyed by Israel after it entered a full mile into Israeli airspace took off from the same T-4 base.

Yadlin said that Israel has made it clear that all Syrian or Iranian aircrafts that enter Israeli airspace would be knocked down. He also noted that all Israel military operations were coordinated with the Russians and that there was a direct line of communication between the IDF and the Russian military stationed in Syria.

“The situation in Syria is complicated, with Syria, Iran and Russia all fighting the rebels and ISIS,” Yadlin said. “If a Russian aircraft had entered our airspace, I reckon the Israeli reaction would have been different.”

Amos Yadlin