Following the strikes, the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit put out a statement saying that Israel’s military had been briefed in advance and expressed their support for the strikes and speaking to military journalists at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, the senior official confirmed that the IDF had been warned ahead of time of the US strike against the base where warplanes that carried out the deadly Khan Sheikhoun chemical gas attack were based.
While the Syrian military continues to deny responsibility for the attack against Khan Sheikhoun, blaming the rebels and stating that it would never use chemical weapons, "it is hard to imagine that Assad did not know about the attack in advance. And the price he’s paid for it is severe. He’s lost all legitimacy," the senior official said.
The Assad regime agreed to dismantle the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles in a 2013 deal brokered by the United States and Russia following the deadly regime attack on East Ghouta near the capital of Damascus where over 1,400 people were killed, including 426 children.
While the regime did comply with destroying much of their stockpiles as well as the infrastructure to produce them, removing over 1,290 metric tons of chemical weapons – including sarin, VX and sulfur mustard, a precursor to mustard gas – according to the senior official, the Assad regime has residual amounts of between 1-3 tons of the deadly chemical agent.
According to him, the Assad regime had carried out the Sarin gas attack against the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing close to 100 civilians, out of frustration that despite the significant help Syria is getting from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, regime troops are unable to make any serious advances on the ground.
While two years ago there may have been an Iranian hegemony in Syria, there was now Russian hegemony in West Syria, he said, but "even with support from the Russians and Hezbollah, Assad cannot control the entire country. His forces are gaining ground in Western Syria but it is hard to see him controlling the entire country."
The senior IDF official stated that it was unlikely that a political settlement to the conflict in Syria will be agreed to in the near future.
"The Syria we once knew is gone and will never be again."
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