Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shi’ite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter said.

The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war. Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards’ top intelligence generals. …

One of the sources – a senior regional security official briefed by Tehran – said senior Iranian commanders had left Syria along with dozens of mid-ranking officers, describing it as a downsizing of the presence.

[This is how Iran has to be handled. Appeasement doesn’t work. Only disproportionate and immediate response to their provocations will force Tehran to back down. Rather than attempt to lecture Israel on how to conduct the war that Hamas and Iran started, maybe Joe Biden and Antony Blinken should be taking notes. — Ed]