Middle East: The Israeli regime’s air strikes against targets in Syria have been conducted with the secret approval of the American military, a US-based daily has reported citing current and former officials.

The Israeli military forces have been coordinating their attacks against Syrian targets with the Pentagon and US Central Command, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, claiming that the dialogue was needed to ensure that the raids by Israeli warplanes would not interfere with the operations of American forces stationed at the Al-Tanf military base near Syria’s border with Jordan.

The report further cited its sources as saying that the vast majority of the strikes by the Israeli regime’s warplanes have been reviewed by Washington, though the US did not assist the Israelis in picking their targets.

It’s a “well-developed and deliberate process,” said a former US official quoted by the daily, which further noted that the secrecy surrounding those contacts “shows how Washington has sought to support its Israeli ally without being drawn into Israel’s shadow war against Iran.” 

“There is tacit American support for the Israelis acting to blunt the Iranians’ efforts to spread weapons around and build their leverage throughout the region. But there has also been a consistent hesitancy about wanting any fingerprints on this,” former senior US State Department official Dennis Ross said as quoted by the daily.

 “It would be irresponsible if there was not deconfliction and coordination because of the risk that we could have an inadvertent problem,” Ross claimed.

Syrian authorities have protested the Israeli military raids, insisting that they violate the country’s sovereignty and international law. Damascus has also emphasized that the US presence at the Al-Tanf base marks an illegal occupation.