clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Israel threatens to destroy Syrian air-defence system

March 20, 2017 at 1:21 pm

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel would continue fighting arms smuggling from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Quds Press reported on yesterday.

Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, on Februrary 18, 2017

Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany, on Februrary 18, 2017

He said: “The next time the Syrians use their air defence systems against our planes we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation.”

The Israeli radio said that Lieberman’s warnings were made during his visit to the military base of Tel HaShomer and came after the Syrians had launched an anti-aircraft missile at the Israeli jet which carried out airstrikes against targets in Syria on Friday.

Lieberman also said: “Israel has no interest in intervening in the Syrian civil war or in the war against President Bashar al-Assad, nor in clashing with Russia there. Our basic problem is the movement of sophisticated weaponry from Syria to Lebanon.”

He continued: “Every time there is an attempt to smuggle weapons from Syria to Lebanon, we will move to undermine it. On this there will be no compromise.”

Read: Syrian forces fire at Israeli jets

Israel does not usually confirm or deny individual raids, but this time alarm sirens in the Jordan Valley were activated when Israel launched its ‘Arrow’ rocket in an attempt to intercept a Syrian anti-aircraft missile.