Live Breaking News & Updates on Southwest Syria|Page 7
Stay updated with breaking news from Southwest syria. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Closely. laura? laura: rick, thanks so much. i m laura ingle, i ll be back at 4 p.m. eastern for our continuing coverage of the shooting in odessa, texas, and hurricane dorianful we ll see you soon. paul: middle east tensions ratcheting up with israel carrying out a series of strikes against iran s proxies in iraq, syria and lebanon in just one 18-hour period last weekend. an israeli airstrike killed two iranian-trained fighters in syria, a drone set off a blast near a hezbollah office in the suburbs of beirut, and an airstrike near the syrian border in iraq killed a commander of an iran-backed militia. the attacks mark an escalation in the shadow war between iran and israel with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu tweeting, quote: iran has no immunity anywhere. our forces operate in every sector against the iranian ....
Aggression. if someone rises up to kill you, kill him first. jonathan spire is a journalist and middle east analyst. he directs the middle east center for reporting and analysis. welcome, mr. spire. good to have you here. so you wrote this week that the israel/iran war is already underway. what s happening on the ground? well, as you were describing a moment ago, what s happening on the ground is an ongoing israeli campaign to attempt to undermine and prevent what i would describe or what is often described as the entrenchment and consolidation by the iranians on a military infrastructure in syria, lebanon and iraq. and in a sense, the attempt by the iranians to consolidate their own de facto control of a kind of contiguous line of territory through iraq, through syria, through lebanon and to israel. ....
While. in syria there s certainly been we know of hundreds of israeli operations, it s now clear it s expanded to iraq and to lebanon. paul: so how many times a week are they hitting, are the airstrikes going into iraq? and can that continue? can the israelis keep doing that without some response from iraq? right. well, we know so far of four separate incidents, two in july, two in august. the last one august 20th. israel, of course, doesn t claim responsibility for these actions, but it looks pretty likely, you know? israel s the only serious candidate for responsibility. paul: right. i would say that iraq itself, the iraqi government is very much divided on this because, of course, israel is not hitting the iraqi security forces. israel is hitting the popular mobilization units, that s shia militia supported by iran inside the country. so i think, you know, the iraqi government will probably ....
A really good idea of where this system is going to head. but nonetheless, laura, it is going to be a big, major storm, and we ll be watching it. laura: i m laura ingle, keep it on fox for all the latest updates on hurricane dorian. paul: middle east tensions ratcheting up with israel carrying out a series of strikes against iran s proxies in iraq, syria and lebanon in just one 18-hour period last weekend. an israeli airstrike killed two iranian-trained fighters in syria, a drone set off a blast near a hezbollah office in the suburbs of beirut, and an airstrike near the syrian border in iraq killed a commander of an iran-backed militia. the attacks mark an escalation in the shadow war between iran and israel with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu tweeting, quote: iran has no immunity anywhere. our forces operate in every sector against the iranian ....
Continue to issue criticism and not do a great deal more. but the issue is will the iranians themselves who, of course, control those militias seek to carry out a response at a time of their choosing. and with regard to that, the answer is almost certainly yes, almost certainly the iranians are already attempting to put together such a response. and, indeed, we saw just last week the israeli action against the operatives in southwest syria, you know, was an israeli sort of foiling of an iranian attempt to launch, we think, killer drones into israel, presumably to hit either civilian or military targets. so they re already trying to respond, and part of the operation for israel is not only to attack, but also to prevent the attempt by the iranians to react and respond. paul: i wonder if, in fact, here the iranians don t have the strategic advantage, and here s why i say that. they re entrenching consistently day by day by day. israel can attack periodically and set them back, but ultima ....