Iraq 

Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Visits Baghdad

To mark Quds Day, the Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Ziyad al-Nakhalah visited Iraq. This was the first time Nakhalah addressed a Quds Day celebration in Iraq and appeared to be the first official trip that Nakhalah has made to the country since becoming secretary-general in 2018. While there, he met with Iraqi officials and militia leaders, including Hadi al-Ameri, the president of the Badr Organization. During his speech, Nakhalah called on Iraqis to continue confronting the “Zionist project” and to support the Palestinian cause. His trip to Baghdad comes after Israeli media reported Iran had transferred hundreds of new drones to Iraq. It has been on alert for attacks to coincide with Quds Day amid an uptick in the risk-readiness among Iran’s proxies and partners to attack Israel.  

Israel and the Palestinian Territories 

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi Speaks Via Video to Palestinians in Gaza

To mark Quds Day, Iran’s president spoke via video to Palestinians in Gaza. While the speech appeared to be the first of its kind by an Iranian president, other senior officials of the Islamic Republic have previously spoken via video to the Palestinians in Gaza during Quds Day, including the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami last year. Raisi proclaimed, “the initiative to self-determination is today in the hands of the Palestinian fighters.”  

Israel Strikes Hamas in Lebanon and Gaza After Rocket Attacks 

Israel's military hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem threatened to spiral out of control. Loud blasts rocked different areas of Gaza, as Israel said its jets hit ten targets, including tunnels and weapons manufacturing and development sites of Hamas, which controls the blockaded southern coastal strip.  

At around 4.00 a.m., the military said it had also struck three Hamas infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon, where residents around the area of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the southern city of Tyre reported three loud blasts. Two Lebanese security sources said the strike hit a small structure on farmland near the area from which the rockets had been launched earlier. According to Reuters witnesses, the strike appeared to have left a large crater in farmland in the south. A member of Lebanon's Civil Defense at the scene on Friday morning said there were no casualties.  

The strikes came in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon towards northern Israeli areas, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas. The military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, of which air defense systems intercepted 25. It was the biggest such attack since 2006, when Israel fought a war with Hezbollah. 

Hezbollah has reportedly denied responsibility for the attack. Although Israel blamed Hamas for Thursday's attack, which took place as Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh was visiting Lebanon, security experts said Hezbollah, the powerful Shi'ite group which helps Israel's main enemy Iran project its power across the region, must have given its permission. Israeli media later reported the Commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, visited Lebanon during the same week that Haniyeh was in Beirut meeting with Hezbollah and there was rocket fire directed at Israel. Ghaani also reportedly visited Syria during that trip.  

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement condemning any military operations from its territory that threatened stability. Before the rockets were fired on Thursday, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said any infringement on Al-Aqsa "will inflame the entire region.” 

An Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli operation was over for the moment. "Nobody wants an escalation right now," he told reporters. "Quiet will be answered with quiet, at this stage I think, at least in the coming hours." 

As the Israeli jets struck in Gaza, salvos of rockets were fired in response, and sirens sounded in Israeli towns and cities in bordering areas. However, there were no reports of serious casualties, and only one rocket hit a target, damaging a house in the southern town of Sderot. 

The cross-border strikes came amid an escalating confrontation over Israeli police raids at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with the Jewish Passover holiday. Israeli police were filmed beating worshippers during raids that officials said were to dislodge groups of young men who had barricaded themselves inside the mosque.

Lebanon

Nasrallah Gives Quds Day Speeches

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah spoke on Thursday on the occasion of Quds Day, claiming that "the developments of the past year have served our struggle against Israel,” including what he claimed was a global shift to a multipolar world order, rather than one dominated solely by the United States, China’s entry into the Middle East as a major diplomatic actor, and the restoration of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran and several Arab countries with Syria.  

According to him, "the revival of Quds Day is an essential part of the battle for the liberation of Palestine. This year, more than ever, we have seen the axis of the resistance to be strong, capable and cohesive, as we have seen on the ground in recent weeks." 

Nasrallah gave a second Quds Day speech on Friday, during which he once again stressed the Resistance Axis’ rising fortunes and what he has been calling the “unification of the fronts.” The Hezbollah secretary-general also made some interesting revelations and claims, many of which should be taken with a grain of salt. He indicated that his group had recent contacts with Gulf officials who expressed their inability to continue to rely on the United States to protect their interests or security. He also hinted that Hezbollah’s and Syria’s silence in the face of continued Israeli airstrikes in the country could “change at any moment,” but – like Nasrallah’s other threats – should not be taken at face value, rather as part of Hezbollah’s attempt to project strength to friend and foe alike.  

Syria 

Israel Strikes Repeatedly in Syria 

While Israel has fought a shadow war with Iran in Syria for years, it has intensified recently, with near-daily airstrikes attributed to Israel by Syrian officials over the past week. According to Syrian officials, Israel has conducted four airstrikes in Syrian territory within five days as of last Thursday, April 6.

Several airstrikes on April 5, targeting the Syrian government and Iranian positions near Damascus’ airport, came a day after Israeli forces reportedly shot down a suspected Iranian drone after it infiltrated from Syrian territory. A day before that incident, an alleged Israeli air raid targeted an airbase in the Syrian province of Homs, wounding at least five Syrian government troops. Two days before that attack, another two Iranian military advisers were killed in an Israeli strike near Damascus, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said.  

At Saudi Insistence, Syria May Return to the Arab Fold 

Saudi Arabia has been leading efforts to facilitate the readmission of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria to the Arab League and to push Arab countries to restore normal diplomatic and trade ties with Damascus. But this push has been facing resistance from some of Riyadh’s allies. 

Riyadh’s latest plan was to invite Damascus to an Arab League summit that Saudi Arabia is hosting on May 19. Syria’s readmission to the Arab League, a group of 22 nations, would legitimize building ties with Mr. Assad, a decade after the Syrian leader was ostracized for his brutal crackdown on opponents and plunging the country into civil war.

On Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Saudi Arabia on a previously unannounced visit to meet his counterpart, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, in the first trip to the kingdom by Syria’s top diplomat in more than a decade.  

In a joint statement issued late Wednesday, the two sides said the foreign ministers discussed the necessary steps to find a comprehensive political resolution to the Syrian crisis that would achieve national reconciliation and contribute to the return of Syria to the Arab fold. 

Saudi Arabia and Syria were also beginning the process of resuming consular services and flights between the two countries, according to the statement. At least five members of the Arab League, including Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar, and Yemen, are refusing to readmit Syria into the group, the Arab officials say. They added that even Egypt, which has rekindled ties with Syria in recent months and is a staunch Saudi ally, is pushing back. The officials said that these countries want Assad to first engage with the Syrian political opposition in a way that would give all Syrians a voice to determine their future.  

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the United Nations on Monday that it supports the implementation of a U.N. resolution that requires a road map to free elections in Syria, a spokesman for the ministry said. Qatar, meanwhile, has said that it will not normalize relations with Syria absent an Arab consensus on the matter and “a change on the ground that achieves the aspirations of the Syrian people.”  

Other Arab countries and other regional actors have decided to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with Tunisia restoring diplomatic ties with Assad’s Syria on Wednesday. Turkey, though not an Arab country, is also showing signs of softening on the Syrian dictator. Many figures in Ankara – for many years the most stalwart backer of the rebels seeking to drive Assad from power — have signaled a potential turnaround. Senior Turkish officials, including the defense minister and the intelligence chief, met with their Syrian counterparts in recent months.

Jordan, meanwhile, said ahead of a meeting on Friday to discuss Syria's readmission to the Arab League it was pushing a joint Arab peace plan that could end the devastating consequences of the over decade-old Syrian conflict, according to a source close to the matter.

Riyadh’s about-face on Syria is part of a broader shift by the Kingdom in its approach towards Iran, the country which currently de facto controls Syria. Instead of trying to isolate Iran, Saudi Arabia is pursuing a multifaceted strategy that mixes engagement with Iran with efforts to counter its influence across the region, including in Syria — where Iran has supported Mr. al-Assad throughout the war. This week, Saudi officials traveled to Yemen for peace talks with the Houthis, Iran-backed rebels fighting a Saudi-led coalition since 2015.

Iran Used Earthquake Relief Mission to Fly Weapons into Syria  

Iran has used earthquake relief flights to bring weapons and military equipment into its strategic ally Syria, nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli, and Western sources told Reuters this week. The sources said the goal was to buttress Iran's defenses against Israel in Syria and to strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iran’s mission to the United Nations has denied these assertions. However, a regional source close to Iran’s clerical leadership said, "The quake was a sad disaster but at the same time it was God's help to us to help our brothers in Syria in their fight against their enemies. Loads of weapons were sent to Syria immediately.”

The supplies included advanced communications equipment and radar batteries, and spare parts required for a planned upgrade of Syria's Iran-provided air defense system in its civil war, said the sources, two regional sources, and a Western intelligence source said. An Israeli defense official, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Under the guise of shipments of earthquake aid to Syria, Israel has seen significant movements of military equipment from Iran, mainly transported in parts."  

He said the aid was mainly delivered to Syria’s northern Aleppo airport. Shipments were organized, he said, by the Unit 18000 Syrian division of the Quds Force, the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of the IRGC, led by Hassan Mehdoui. He said ground transportation was handled by the Quds Force's Transport Unit 190 led by Bahanem Shahariri. 

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