Iran slammed Israel on Thursday following Damascus-circulated reports of an Israeli-ordered strike on a research facility north of the Syrian capital Wednesday, warning the reported action would invoke “grave consequences for Tel Aviv”.
The warnings came after foreign news sources announced unsubstantiated reports of an Israeli hit on a weapons convoy near the Syrian-Lebanon border Wednesday, claims later refuted by the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
Hezbollah, which Israel and the US designate a terrorist organisation in contrast to the EU which does not, as well as accusing them of serving as Iran’s proxy, did however respond to Syria’s claims of a strike on its territory with a statement expressing “full solidarity with Syria’s leadership, army and people” Thursday.
The alleged attack comes a week after Iranian policy advisor Ali Akbar Velayti warned that an attack on close ally Syria “is considered an attack on Iran and Iran’s allies”, which similarly includes Hezbollah.
Fellow Syrian ally, and serial vetoer of stringent measures against authoritarian leader Bashar al Assad at the UN Security Council, meanwhile expressed concern about the reports Thursday, which if “confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets o the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it,” stressed a statement by the Russian foreign ministry.
Israel has yet to respond to reports of a strike on Syria, as have its western allies.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels following a meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers Thursday afternoon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton insisted that whilst Europe’s foreign leaders were following reports on the alleged strikes with great interest, “the council doesn’t have definitive information, so that was not part of our discussions today”.
Israel has frequently warned that if Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons fell into the hands of Hezbollah, it would be a casus belli.
But it has also raised the alarm over long-range Scud missiles or other advanced weaponry - such as anti-aircraft systems and surface-to-surface missiles - being transferred to Hezbollah.
The strike made headlines across the Israeli press on Thursday, with officials and commentators quick to stress that Israel would never allow the transfer of sophisticated weaponry to the Lebanese Shiite group.
“The best thing that Israel has been hoping for a long time is that the West will take control of these weapons,” said Tzahi HaNegbi, an MP from the ruling Likud party, who is known as a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“But the world is not ready to take such a decision as it did in Libya or Iraq, so Israel finds itself facing a dilemma which we alone can resolve,” he told army radio, indicating that Israel was left with no choice but to take preventative action.
“Israel has always said that if sophisticated weapons coming from Iran, North Korea and Russia fell into the hands of Hezbollah, it would cross a red line,” he said.
“Israel cannot accept that advanced weapons fall into the hands of terrorist organisations,” he said.