While the international community continues issuing condemnations about the American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights it becomes increasingly clear that the measure is related to Iran’s activities in Syria.
Earlier this week, US officials told Investigative reporter Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon that “the Trump administration's recent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights territory is part of a larger effort by the White House to open new fronts in efforts to combat Iranian militants and terror proxies in the region.”
While EU commissioner for foreign affairs Frederica Mogherini claimed that the American recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights did not constitute a “solution” for the conflict over the ownership of the mountainous plateau, the Trump Administration begs to differ.
"This decision is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and the stability of the Middle East,” an unnamed White House official told Kredo.
"To allow the Golan Heights to be controlled by the likes of the Syrian and Iranian regimes would turn a blind eye to the threats emanating from a Syrian regime that engages in atrocities and from Iran and terrorist actors, including Hezbollah, seeking to use the Golan Heights as a launching ground for attacks on Israel," the official added.
"This administration, unlike previous administrations, is willing to acknowledge the reality that there can be no comprehensive peace agreement that does not satisfactorily address Israel's security needs in the Golan Heights," another White House official said.
Highlighting the radically changed situation on Israel’s north-eastern border where Iran has been staging cross-border missile attacks over the past year the official said “the president's statement on the Golan reflects a recognition of the unique circumstances that make it appropriate to recognize Israeli sovereignty at this time."
These “unique circumstances” include Iran’s belligerent activities in Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza where the Islamic Republic is constantly trying to keep the war of attrition against Israel going.
At the same time, Iran’s missile threat against Israel is growing by the day as we will see.
Islamic Jihad’s increasing influence in Gaza is the work of its new commander Ziad Nakhallah who is very close to Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
Nakhallah has sped up the transformation of IJ into a Hezbollah-styled fighting force and is stirring up violence in Gaza all the time.
The terror organization has no financial problems since it is wholly funded by Iran and is trying to take over Gaza in order to escalate the war against Israel.
As for Lebanon, Israel again revealed that Iran, together with Hezbollah has completed the construction of an underground production facility for precision missiles.
The existence of the new missile facility in Lebanon was reportedly one of the issues discussed during last week’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo reportedly warned Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri that Iran’s activities could lead to a new disaster for Lebanon because Israel would not sit on its hands and could take military action to eliminate the growing threat from Iran in Lebanon.
Then there is the increasing long-distance missile threat to Israel from Iranian soil.
Also at the beginning of February, Iran unveiled the second generation of the Khoramsharh ballistic missile.
The KhoramSharh-2 missile reportedly has a manoeuvrable warhead which makes it a precision missile. The missile has a range of 2000 km which allows it to hit targets in all of Israel while it is capable of carrying several three-ton warheads.
Then there was the sudden revelation of a new Iranian underground missile factory in February.
As for the Iranian missile threat from Iraq, the fact that the Iranian proxy Hash al Shaabi, an umbrella organisation of Iranian-founded Shiite militias, is currently taking control over northern Iraq and is in the possession of ballistic missiles is a source of concern for Israel as well.
The missiles have already been used against the Kurds in Syria and against the Islamic State jihadist terror group and could be used against Israel in a future missile war.
To prevent Iran from carrying out transports of troops and missiles from the border with Iraq all the way to the Golan Heights the US has now decided to keep more troops in Syria than originally had been planned.
The US military is currently reinforcing its bases in Iraq and Syria with more troops arriving in Kirkuk in northern Iraq and at the at-Tanf base in eastern Syria on the border of Iraq.
Both Israel and the United States are determined to prevent the completion of the Iranian land corridor from Tehran to the Israeli border on the Golan Heights.
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