The UK's Economic Crime Plan 2: Maintaining Momentum Under New Leadership

“Facilities producing solid fuel motors or hosting planetary mixers would come under sustained attack from Russia,” says Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. “It will be difficult to produce a MRBM [medium-range ballistic missile] or IRBM [intermediate-range ballistic missile] at the scale needed to be a useful conventional weapon.”

The significance of the Golan and the buffer zone is its unique geographical position overlooking four countries: Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Whether Israel’s stated concern over its security is justified, or serves a wider agenda, is another question. HA Hellyer, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said: “I think the main motivation is that they want make sure people up there don’t leave in the same way as other people in the north left because of the threat of Hezbollah from Lebanon. “It is not the fear of rockets but incursions by armed groups.”

Dr Karin von Hippel provides her views on what might be next for Syria following the toppling of the Assad regime.