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Moscow is allowing Hezbollah personnel in Syria to carry Russian flags in order to protect themselves from possible Israeli airstrikes, the Israeli Ynet News reported on December 15 citing Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
According to Ynet News, Israel complained to Russia that its flags were spotted on Iranian military convoys in Syria earlier this month. The cover-up flags were supposedly seen in positions of Iran and Hezbollah in Hama, Homs, Idlib and the Syrian Desert.
Exactly a week ago, Colonel Mustafa Bakkor, a spokesman for Jaysh al-Izza, made a very similar claim. According to Bakkor’s claim, Iranian forces in northern Hama are raising Russian flags over their positions in order to “protect themselves from Israeli bombardment.”
Just like Bakkor, Kommersant and Ynet News didn’t present any evidence to back their claims. The outlets didn’t also explained how Israel is able to tell for sure that Russian flags were placed over positions of Iranian forces and Hezbollah.
The most demanding question on this matter: If Israel was really able to identify these positions, and was sure that there were no Russian service members there, what difference the presence of these flags did make?
