US President Barack Obama said on Saturday that Israel has the right to guard against the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah.
In an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo as part of a three-day Latin America, he said : “I’ll let the Israeli government confirm or deny whatever strikes that they’ve taken.”
”What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. We coordinate closely with the Israelis recognizing they are very close to Syria, they are very close to Lebanon.” he said.
A senior US official told NBC News Israeli jets bombed a military research facility north of Damascus early Sunday, two days after unnamed Israeli officials confirmed Israel Air Force planes on Friday had carried out a strike again Hezbollah-bound arms convoy.
A Western intelligence source said that the strike targeted Iranian-supplied missiles to Hezbollah.
"In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Iranian Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah," the source said.
The New York Times said on Saturday that Iranian surface-to-surface Fateh-10 missiles were struck at a Damascus airport warehouse that was under the guard of the Iranian Quds Force and Hezbollah. The projectiles have a range of 300 kilometers.
Israel has repeatedly made clear it is prepared to use force to prevent advanced weapons from Syria reaching Hezbollah terrorists, who fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
Syrian President Bashir Al Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran.With Assad battling a more than two-year-old insurgency, the Israelis also worry that the Sunni Islamist rebels could loot his arsenals and eventually hit Israel, ending four decades of relative cross-border calm.
One of the sites hit on Sunday, the Jamraya military research center, was also targeted by Israel in January. A nearby ammunition depot was also hit.
Last week, hundreds of Israeli reserve soldiers have been called up for a large-scale drill in northern Israel, which was planned in advance as part of the IDF’s annual training
“The exercise simulates an escalation in a short timeframe,” said a senior officer in the Northern Command. “In this context, we must call up some of the forces and begin the maneuver within 48 hours. The scenario that we are practicing includes a development that leads to a deterioration in the Lebanese sector and beginning a maneuver there.”
Israel’s Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz has stated that in light of developments in Syria, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is “ready for the possibility that terror groups will take advantage of the instability. Iran and Hezbollah are attempting to maintain their axis and the Assad regime."
He added that “Hezbollah was deterred following the war in 2006 and operations in Gaza, but they are getting bigger and bigger. They are concerned because they see the Iran-Syria axis cracking, and there is no small chance that they will find themselves alone in the strategic environment."
He emphasized the IDF’s preparedness for deteriorations in the region. “Not a day goes by that we don’t find ourselves facing an incident with the potential to ignite into a large-scale battle,” he said. “The State of Israel must protect its readiness for autonomous action.”