Israel is unlikely to return what it occupied in Syria – Benyamin Poghosyan

What happened in Syria is in Israel’s interests, senior analyst at APRI Armenia Benyamin Poghosyan told Alpha News.

“It is obvious that Turkey has been significantly involved in the Syrian war since 2011. The forces that launched this military operation on November 27, 2024, definitely backed by Turkey, were already in Damascus on the morning of December 8. It is clear that over the past 4-5 years, the civil war in Syria seemed to have been frozen, but under Turkish influence, the militants were trained and rearmed, and these actions contributed to increasing their combat capability.

What happened in Syria corresponds to the interests of Israel; after all, Syria was one of the main Arab states that opposed Israel several times,” he said.

According to Poghosyan, Israeli forces entered Syrian territory, taking advantage of the government crisis and chaos in the country.

“We now witness how Israeli forces, taking advantage of the government crisis and chaos in Syria, entered Syrian territory, and according to various sources, Israeli tanks are now only 20 km from Damascus. The areas that Israel occupied in Syria are unlikely to be returned in the near future, especially since it is unclear who will demand their return.

It can be assumed that Syria will be in a state of chaos for some time, and different groups will fight against each other. This is not only about pro-Turkish forces waging military action against Kurdish forces, but also about disagreements in different groups, since they were all temporarily united by the idea of overthrowing Assad and coming to power,” Benyamin Poghosyan concluded.