Syrian Soldiers Injured In Israeli Airstrike On Damascus: State Media
Two soldiers were wounded during an Israeli airstrike on Damascus, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported on Wednesday.
Two soldiers were wounded during an Israeli airstrike on Damascus, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported on Wednesday.
According to a Syrian military source cited by SANA, the attack was carried out by Israeli warplanes targeting the suburbs of Damascus from the Golan Heights.
The military source claimed that the majority of the missiles launched by Israel were intercepted and destroyed by the Syrian army's air defense systems. However, the attack still resulted in injuries to two soldiers and caused material damage in the area.
Reports from opposition-affiliated news websites suggest that the strikes targeted facilities in the western part of Damascus, near Qudsiyah. Images depicting numerous fires in the aftermath of the attacks have surfaced on social media platforms.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based war monitoring group, confirmed that this incident marks the 20th time Israel has launched attacks on Syrian targets this year. Iran intervened in Syria's civil war in 2011 to support Bashar al-Assad's regime, by deploying tens of thousands of troops and fighters.
On July 2, the most recent Israeli air attack on Syria was reported, with Syria's military confirming that Israel had targeted areas near the central city of Homs. The attack resulted in material damage, but there were no reported casualties.
Since 2017, Israel has conducted multiple airstrikes on Iran-related targets in Syria, where Tehran has established bases and weapons depots, including international airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo. Israel has vowed to check Iran's attempts to establish a strong military presence in Syria.
According to an exclusive report by Reuters, the Biden administration on Tuesday moved to let Iraq pay Iran for electricity via non-Iraqi banks, a US official said, a step Washington hopes may keep Tehran from forcing unpopular power cuts during the sweltering Iraqi summer.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a 120-day national security waiver allowing Iraq - heavily dependent on Iranian electricity - to deposit such payments into non-Iraqi banks in third countries instead of into restricted accounts in Iraq, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Reuters, apparently quoting the official, said that funds put into the non-Iraqi banks, like those deposited into Iraqi banks, will also be restricted, still requiring US permission for Iran to get access to them and only for spending on humanitarian goods.
Tehran has in the past pushed Baghdad to secure US permission to release such funds by cutting Iranian natural gas exports to Iraq, limiting Iraq's ability to generate power, and forcing deeply unpopular electricity cuts.
Reuters said the change came at the request of the Iraqi government, apparently in the hopes that this might transfer some of the pressure that Iran has exerted on Baghdad to other countries.
But it is not clear if the change is not the result of an Iranian plan to gradually weaken the impact of US banking sanctions on its dealings with Iraq. Iran’s next move could be pressure on Iraq to ask the United States to lift all restrictions on the funds, enabling Tehran to withdraw cash dollars. The current Iraqi government has closer ties with Tehran than its predecessor.
"We have to help the Iraqis with this perennial pressure from the Iranians to access the money," the US official told Reuters.
"The Iraqis have requested, and now we have agreed, to expand the waiver," said the US official, adding that this might help ensure better compliance with the US requirement that any disbursements be for humanitarian purposes.
"It also helps the Iraqis, at least somewhat, to have an argument to make (to Iran) that they are not in control of the money that they have paid (into non-Iraqi accounts)," he added.
If this was a change resulting purely from an Iraqi-US agreement, it is not clear whether Iran might ease up on Iraq as a result. Tehran could decide it has greater leverage over Iraq than over other nations and continue to exert pressure.
Last week it was reported that Iraq was willing to barter oil with Iran instead of cash payments, which could also violate US sanctions.
Iraq exports at least four times more oil than Iran, with more than $100 billion annual revenues, but with its inefficient government and corruption it has not been able to tap its own natural gas to produce electricity.
Iran is under extensive US economic sanctions reimposed in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal that Tehran struck with major powers Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States in 2015.
Trump believed his policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran would force it to accept more stringent restrictions to its nuclear program, which the United States, European powers and Israel fear may be designed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
As a result of Trump's withdrawal from the deal and US President Joe Biden's failure to revive it, Iran could make the fissile material for one bomb in 12 days or so, according to U.S. estimates, down from a year when the accord was in force.
With exclusive reporting by Reuters
