Trump recognizes Golan to counter Iran’s first steps for annexing Lebanon to Syria

 

US President Donald Trump’s declared recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan on Thursday, March 21, had a time-sensitive object, unconnected to the Israeli election or Binyamin Netanyahu’s run for reelection, as his rivals contended. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that it was an arrow aimed by the US president at Iran, Syria, Iraq and Hizballah, and the machinations plotted at Syrian President Bashar Assad’s meeting with Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khameini on Feb. 25. Present at their meeting, our sources reveal, were two figures, Al Qods chief Qasem Soleimani, supreme commander of Iran’s Mid East fronts, and, for the first time, a high-ranking Hizballah military official, who is a senior strategic adviser to Hassan Nasrallah.

Lebanon’s new president pledges loyalty to Iran, threatens Israel

Michel Aoun. /EPA

 

In his first act as Lebanon’s new president, Michael Aoun declared his loyalty to Iran and issued a chilling threat to Israel.

In his inaugural speech on Oct. 31, Aoun said that “in the conflict with Israel, we will not spare any effort or resistance to liberate what remains of occupied Lebanese land.”