Syrian War Appears to Be Headed for Endgame

US National Security Adviser John Bolton gave an interview with Reuterspublished on Wednesday morning in which he said, among other things, that the Trump Administration will continue to push for Iranian forces to leave Syria following the conclusion of hostilities there. “Our interests in Syria are to finish the destruction of the [Islamic State’s] territorial caliphate and deal with the continuing threat of ISIS terrorism, and to worry about the presence of Iranian militias and regular forces,” he said. “And those are the issues that keep us there.”

Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric in Iran’s Shi’ite power structure, gave a speech at a prayer meeting for the Moslem festival of Eid in Tehran on Wednesday in which he said, among other things, that “The price of a war with Iran is very high for America. They know if they harm this country and this state in the slightest way, the United States and its main ally in the region, the Zionist regime (of Israel) would be targeted.” Meanwhile, protests against the clerical regime continued in several Iranian cities this week as US officials said sanctions on the regime are proving to be more effective than was anticipated.

Israeli humanitarian NGO IsraAID was among the first to respond to a call from the South-Indian state of Kerala amidst devastating floods there which have killed an estimated 220 people and displaced nearly 725,000 others. IsraAID dispatched a team this week carrying urgent humanitarian supplies and a team to assess the long-term needs of the people living in the affected area.

A poll taken this week by Panels Research on behalf of the Walla News site estimated that in upcoming elections, the Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would pick up additional seats and its allies in the governing coalition would also make gains, giving the current coalition a commanding position in the formation of a future government. Intense political jockeying in anticipation of elections, which will occur no later than November of 2019 and possibly much sooner, has been ongoing in recent weeks within the existing coalition as well as among opposition parties.

In an address marking the 12th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War on August 14, 2018, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hizbullah, described how he perceived the confrontation with Israel. Hizbullah’s “victory” in the Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah claimed, achieved complete deterrence against Israel.

In the course of the past several months, the Islamist terror militia Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is seeking to reach a cease-fire agreement with Israel that will allow it to bolster its domestic standing amid severe economic constraints. In order to realize a long-term cessation of hostilities, the internationally recognized terror group is willing, for the time being, to set aside its aspiration to annihilate the Jewish state. A panel of experts discusses the possible scenarios.

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