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Israel has notified Russia of its decision to redraw its Iran “red lines” and to expand its operations across Syria, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on May 26.

According to the report, Israel is going to expand its operations to the entirety of its northern neighbor’s territory rather than just the southern portion of Syria.

“The “red lines” previously aimed to prevent Iran from transferring missiles to its militias and to “Hezbollah,” and to halt the establishment of permanent Iranian bases or missile factories. “Israeli missiles targeted on Thursday al-Dabaa Military Airbase and its vicinity in the western countryside of Homs, where the Lebanese Hezbollah and militiamen loyal to Syrian regime forces and non-Syrian nationalities are located,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday. While no official statement was made by Israel concerning the attack, several media outlets confirmed the Observatory’s report,” Asharq Al-Awsat’s article says.

The report comes just a few days after another round of Israeli strikes on Syria in which 9 Iranians were killed, according to Sky News. However, the Iranian state media denied that Iranian forces had suffered any casualties in the recent Israeli strike.

According to Syrian experts, the May 26 report by Asharq Al-Awsat is another step in a longstanding Saudi-Israeli campaign aimed at undermining the Iranian-Russian cooperation over the Syrian conflict. Israel and Saudi media have released multiple reports and speculations alleging that the Iranian-Russian alliance is shrinking or is about to collapse.

In contrary to these allegations, in reality the both countries have been successfully cooperating en rotue to reach their joint goals: to defeat radical groups, to strengthen the central government and to set a foothold for restoring a territorial integrity of Syria.

According to som experts, the recent series of propaganda claims and Israeli strikes are clearly linked to the ongoing preparations of the Syrian Army to launch a military operation to regain the southern part of the country from militants.

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