Following Iranian militia attacks on Israel’s border, UN ambassador calls on Security Council to demand end of Iranian military presence in Syria.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations called on the UN Security Council Wednesday to “take immediate action against the Iranian presence in Syria” in the wake of attacks on Israel’s northern border by armed groups affiliated with the Islamic Republic.
“Iranian terrorism spreading in Syria could ignite the entire region and exact a heavy price in blood,” Gilad Erdan tweeted, saying he appealed to the members of the Security Council “to take immediate action against the Iranian presence in Syria and to strongly condemn the placement of explosive devices near the border. These terrorist attacks violate Security Council resolutions and jeopardize the stability of the entire region.”
Last week, IDF troops found several bombs planted on the Israeli side of the border, and a similar incident occurred in August. The explosives were neutralized and no Israelis were injured in either case.
In a letter addressed to the Security Council, Erdan said the incidents were conducted by “Iran’s proxies in Syria,” proving that “the Syrian regime continues to allow Iran and its proxies to use its territory … to entrench its presence in Syria and undermine efforts to maintain stability in the region.”
“Israel calls upon the Security Council to condemn these recurring dangerous acts and demands a total rollback of Iran and its proxies from Syria and the removal of Iranian military infrastructure from Syrian territory,” Erdan said in the letter.
Iran has used the cover of Syria’s decade-long civil war to gain a military presence in Syria, by sponsoring militias in Syria loyal to Tehran and backing the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group that sent thousands of fighters to prop up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Earlier this year, Israeli military affairs analyst Amos Yadlin noted that Israeli military action in Syria was “a message to the powers and elements of the Shiite axis…the [Israeli] campaign against the Iranian regime began before the Trump administration, and will continue after it.”
“The Iranians and Hezbollah have been trying for a long time to establish terrorist infrastructure in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights,” said Yadlin, a retired IDF general who heads the prestigious Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.