TEHRAN - In the aftermath of Israel’s recent airstrikes on Syria, targeting areas near Damascus and the southern regions under the pretext of protecting minorities, analysts are probing the deeper strategic objectives behind Tel Aviv’s escalating military posture across the region.

In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, political commentator Munir Daair offers a sweeping analysis of the broader geopolitical design behind Israel’s actions, including the colonial logic underpinning its repeated aggressions from Gaza to Syria.

Daair argues that these attacks are part of a long-term project, fully backed by Western powers, to redraw the Middle East through fragmentation, destabilization, and enforced fatigue among resistance forces.

In this in-depth interview, he warns that Syria may now be the central front in a dangerous and expanding colonial roadmap.

The following is the text of the interview:

Considering the current clashes between Syrian forces and Druze militias, what are the implications for Israel’s security calculus and regional power balances, especially with Israeli military intervention in play?

What is happening in Syria and the military attacks by the Zionist regime have very little to do with security and everything to do with the so-called ‘New Middle East”. This is part of a greater regional roadmap devised not just by the Zionist occupation but also fully endorsed by Western powers, especially the United States.

The roadmap is intended to lead to a situation in which Western neo-colonial domination of the region is maintained via the satellite state they created in 1948 in Palestine. Over the past 76 years, this ambition has been challenged in Palestine by Palestinians themselves with some Arab support.

But Arab support for Palestinians has waned, creating an unprecedented opportunity for Western powers to proceed with their roadmap. What we see now is attempts to engage and defeat the remaining challenges to that roadmap.

The full-scale attacks on the region’s resistance forces, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and most recently Iran, are intended to forcefully achieve that outcome. The theory at play is that what cannot be achieved by force can be achieved by more force. 

The colonial road map is in full swing.

What are Israel’s stated pretexts for attacking Syria, particularly in light of the Syrian interim president’s vow to protect the Druze community?

It’s the same playbook. Attacks on Syria are explained as attempts to protect the Druze. Attacks on Lebanon are explained as intended to protect Jewish settlements in Palestine’s northern border with Lebanon.

Attacks on Yemen are excused as protecting the maritime freedom in the Red Sea, although only Zionist related or destined shipping has been attacked and not others.

Attacks on Iran are explained as preventing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, despite all evidence proving Iran’s nuclear program has no military angle to it. The attacks on Iraq were explained as attempts to prevent Iraq’s acquisition of WMD, although none were found.

It’s the same playbook we have seen throughout colonial history. Colonial invaders have always used pretexts to justify their attacks. However, to really understand what we are witnessing, we must view these attacks in the context of a greater regional geopolitical power play. 

Given the complex sectarian, international, and geopolitical factors at play, what scenarios do you foresee unfolding in southern Syria?

I have to look at Syria in terms of what I just said, regional geopolitical power play. Syria is not an isolated case. Unless the countries in the region, Iran, Turkey, and the Arab countries, make a serious challenge, the road map that is being violently pursued will succeed.

Neither Iran nor Turkey nor the Arabs can do this alone without coordinating with each other and acting as one regional bloc. Unless these three components of the regional bloc act together and take possession of the region’s security arrangements, the region’s future looks bleak, and the colonial road map will succeed. 

How do you assess the broader impact of Israel’s strikes on Damascus and southern Syria on the security calculations of neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, and especially Turkey?

Lebanon has fallen, not through military force, but by the fall being engineered from within against the only force that resisted Zionist ambitions in Lebanon. The claim that Hezbollah controlled Lebanon has been proven false by the fact that when the political, not military, forces decided to disenfranchise Hezbollah, they succeeded.

Yemen continues to stand out because the forces at play in Yemen are outside the control of the government in what has become, for all intents and purposes, a divided nation. Its topography also aids Yemen, making it impossible for any ground invasion to succeed. Syria is gradually falling apart of our very eyes.

Jordan is not a party to any resistance. Iran continues to be attacked economically, politically, and most recently, militarily.

That leaves Turkey, which is gradually being surrounded by forces hostile to its ambitions to be a serious global or even a regional player. As matters stand now, politically, even militarily and economically, Turkey is probably the country that stands most to lose if the colonial road map succeeds.

Consider Turkey’s Mediterranean basin crises and Greek attempts to control Turkish shipping in the Aegean Sea. It will only get worse under the new colonial road map. The noose around Türkiye is getting tighter.

Turkey has the most to gain by coordinating the region’s security arrangements with Iran and the Arabs away from NATO’s ambitions. 

It will take a long time for us to understand the true changes that are taking place in Syria. 

Beyond the official justifications, what do you believe are the alternative or strategic motives behind Israel’s repeated aggression against Syrian territory?

Fishing in unstable waters is at full play in Syria. It will take a long time for us to understand the true changes that are taking place in Syria. How to identify the players. What powers engineered the changes. It’s all too early, and the current situation does not help make any definite conclusions.

But it is noteworthy that the current situation comes not long after the US lifted its economic sanctions on Syria, the Syrian president and his American counterpart meeting in Saudi., the new president, under his new identity, being widely accepted by the same Western powers that branded him a terrorist not long ago. Russia and Iran were withdrawing from Syria. 

Syria is currently the most fertile ground to proceed with the colonial road map. It offers great opportunities because of its messy situation. 

Finally, what we need to prevent is a feeling of exhaustion or boredom with the current situation, leading us to distance ourselves from it. That is dangerous. Because the other side is neither tired nor bored. It’s relentlessly pursuing its goals. The genocide in Gaza continues. Those killing Palestinians are neither tired nor bored. The colonial road map is in full swing. The attacks on the region are expanding.

The military buildup continues despite any false claims to the contrary. The tiredness and boredom are inflicting our side only. The side that must continue to resist. What keeps me worried is this dangerous feeling I see in our midst.