Western powers that launched coordinated airstrikes against Syria sought to settle scores with Russia and Iran, but at the same time making sure they did not draw retaliation from Damascus' allies and set off a wider conflict, says a former diplomat.
"It seems that the move was intended to settle scores with Russia and, to some extent, with Iran. Thus, they did something that was limited in scale," Ali Khorram told ISNA in remarks published Tuesday.
Warplanes and ships from the United States, Britain and France launched more than 100 missiles at storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs before dawn on Saturday, in a "limited" and "targeted" operation that Washington hailed as a success, according to the New York Times.
The strikes were carried out in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by government forces a week earlier—a claim dismissed by Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.
The analyst said, "They knew that if they had proceeded further, the situation would spiral out of control and could have led to a direct confrontation with Russia, or a conflict between Iran and Israel or Iran and Saudi Arabia. That is why they decided on something limited in scope."
Prior Knowledge
Khorram added that consultations between the US and Russia appear to have taken place prior to the American-led attacks, which justifies the lack of any military response by Moscow despite its earlier promises that any attack on Syria draw a strong military response.
Kremlin officials said Russian-supplied Syrian air defense systems intercepted 71 of the 103 cruise missiles that were launched during the allied strikes, VOA reported.
However, the Russian Defense Ministry said its own air defense units did not engage any of the missiles as none of them entered the Russian air defense zones.
Reliable Ally
Asked if Russia could be a reliable partner for Iran in the bloody civil war in the Arab country in light of the recent developments, Khorram said such military arrangements are common between world powers during wartime to avoid an escalation of the situation.
"Usually when major powers want to head off a direct conflict, they do some coordination with each other beforehand."
Symbolic Raid
The former official called the recent attacks "illegal" and "symbolic", adding that Washington and Moscow are engaged in another face-off "in the political arena", including at the United Nations where they exercise veto power against each other.
While the US in the past called on the embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, more recently it has resigned itself to his remaining in power.
Political experts say that was partly because it feared the vacuum that could emerge if the Syrian government collapsed, and partly because a section of his domestic political base is opposed to Washington getting dragged deeper into the Syria quagmire.
Before Saturday's airstrikes, US President Donald Trump had said he wants to withdraw the roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria, and that his administration had suspended support for Syrian rebels, evidence of his desire to disentangle his country from the brutal conflict, according to Reuters.
