IN SYRIA: ISRAEL IS WORKING TO ENHANCE ITS OWN SECURITY

The rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is unlikely to bring peace to the region, and instead, is more than likely to see the revival of the civil war that has been dogging Syria since 2011. There is a vacuum right now in Syria as HTS does not have the capacity to control the whole country.

- JOYEETA BASU

The latest bombing by Israel of a weapons depot in Syria's Tartus area—where Russia has its now abandoned naval base—triggered an earthquake that measured 3.0 on the Richter scale, giving an indication of the ferocity of the attack. This comes in the backdrop of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moving deep inside the Syrian part of Golan Heights soon after the fall of Bashar Al Assad. In the process, the IDF has captured Mount Hermon, the highest point in Syria. Mount Hermon is strategically located along the border of Syria and Lebanon, hence, from that height, the IDF has an untrammelled view of not just Syria, but also Lebanon, which is the seat of Israel's archenemy Hezbollah. Significantly, Mount Hermon is located just 40 km from the Syrian capital Damascus. Hermon is a strategic high ground, which was earlier blocking the visibility of any drones and other projectiles coming from Lebanon and Syria towards Israel. Now that the IDF has captured this territory, it will be able to monitor any such projectiles approaching Israel from both Syria and Lebanon and will be able to shoot these down. This is a huge stra