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How Iran Took Over Syria's Secret Missile Production
(Israel Hayom) Yoav Limor - Not a week goes by without some foreign media reporting on an alleged Israeli strike against Syria. The main objective of these reported attacks is to frustrate Iran's entrenchment in Syria through the militias it trains and arms, as well as to interdict the weapon shipments to its proxies in the region - chiefly Hizbullah. Weapons manufactured in Iran are transported to Syria by air, land, or sea, and from there to Lebanon. Israel has reportedly attacked these routes hundreds of times in recent years. The systematic attacks have cost Iran dearly and derailed its plans to arm Hizbullah with precision-guided munitions within Syria to challenge Israel's security from the Golan Heights. To overcome the difficulties posed by these strikes, Iran is using Syria's indigenous production capabilities to manufacture arms. This has led to dozens of strikes against Syrian infrastructure and installations. These are under the auspices of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (CERS) - Syrian military industries. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently revealed that there are dozens of subterranean installations that Syria uses to manufacture advanced arms. Moreover, Iran has been engaged with CERS without even coordinating this with the Syrian authorities. Senior members of the Revolutionary Guards have been paying CERS bigwigs and essentially have them work on Iranian projects. Israel has increased its strikes against this newly built Iranian apparatus, seeking to damage the manufacturing assets so that they are no longer usable. Since 2017 Israel has struck CERS facilities - according to foreign reports - dozens of times. Targets include factories for the production of engines, casting of warheads, manufacturing of propellants and engine casings for missiles, as well as centers for research and development. These targets are the product of pinpoint intelligence and rigorous analysis. According to Israeli officials, the ties between the Revolutionary Guards and the CERS upper echelon have not been sanctioned by Syrian President Assad and his defense ministers. "Assad is hardly aware of what is going on; he is being fed lies by his people," a senior Israeli official told me.