The Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, said Tuesday that Tel Aviv has significantly limited Iranian military capabilities in the region.
Eisenkot made a visit to the border with Syria on the Golan Heights, hours after media reports said that Israel struck Iranian targets in Syria.
He was accompanied by Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick and other senior officers.
The Israeli army chief praised the Northern Command for its effort in blocking Iranian forces from establishing a permanent military presence in southern Syria, near the Israeli border, and from transferring precision-guided missiles to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“The fact that their abilities are far from what Iran and terror groups desired is the result of high-quality, ongoing operational activity,” Eisenkot said, while visiting the Northern Command’s Bashan Division in the Golan Heights.
Earlier this week, Strick warned that Iran and Hezbollah were still working to establish a permanent military presence in southern Syria to threaten Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that Iranian weapons transfers to Hezbollah via Syria have significantly decreased since the downing of a Russian plane in September.
The premier also revealed that Israel had continued to act in Syria since the incident, in which the Syrian air defense shot down the Russian plane with 17 people on board amid Israeli airstrikes.
