Israeli official welcomes recent Gulf–Syria rapprochement

TEL AVIV / DARAMSUQ / ABU DHABI — Commenting on the rapprochement between the Syrian regime and a number of Gulf states, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a senior Israeli official told the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that Tel Aviv welcomes this rapprochement and considers it a step to reduce Iranian influence in Syria and the region in general.

The official stated that the Syrian war has exhausted the Syrian economy and head of the Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad is seeking to attract foreign investments that can come from the Gulf countries.

“The crisis constitutes an obstacle to Assad achieving any progress at this level,” he added, indicating that reducing Iranian influence may also mean reducing the Iranian nuclear project, which is considered the greatest existential threat to Israel.

The U.S. has criticized the Gulf states’ normalization of relations with the Syrian regime.

In related news, the Israeli Shin Bet Security Service announced on Wednesday that it had thwarted an Iranian attempt to recruit Israeli women for espionage missions.

Indictments had been filed against four Iranian-born and Farsi-speaking Israelis, in addition to the husband of one of them. They had contacts with an Iranian intelligence agent who presented himself as a Jew and carried out espionage missions inside Israel by employing the accused group to photograph Israeli embassies and security officials for Iran.