BEIRUT, October 6. /TASS/. The terrorist attack on a military academy in the city of Homs was a message to the Syrian government about the existence of a scenario to unleash a new conflict in the country, Lebanese General Naji Malyaib, a leading analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies in Beirut, has told TASS.

"President Bashar Assad's opponents, primarily the US, Turkey and Israel, are threatening him with a rerun of the military scenario," Malyaib noted. He recalled that for the past five years, after the legitimate government of Syria retained control of most of the country's territory thanks to Russia's military support, Damascus was mainly under economic pressure.

"In 2023, the opponents of the regime, using sanctions and boycott, managed to achieve a sharp deterioration in the social position of the population, which led to protests in the southern provinces of Essaouira and Daraa," he pointed out. "The aim was clear: to cause widespread discontent that would force President Assad to make political concessions to the West."

According to the general, Assad's state visit to China thwarted these plans.

"The large-scale assistance promised by Beijing in the implementation of infrastructure projects and the strategic nature of the bilateral partnership filled the hearts of Syrians with hope for an early end to post-war devastation," he said. "It is for this reason that the opponents of the Syrian regime have chosen military escalation as their weapon of choice."

Malyaib stressed that the drone strike targeted Homs, a key city for the Assad government, linking the center of the country to the sea coast in the west and the border with Iraq in the east.

"Their plan was a sudden strike on a training center for the military elite would shock the Syrians," he pointed out.

The Lebanese expert believes that extremist groups such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both banned in Russia) lack the technical capabilities to launch drones over long distances.

"One should suspect an involvement of groups linked to Turkish, US and French intelligence services, based in the mountain regions of Idlib and Latakia," he said.