Both Syrian and Iran are making bold threats following a surprise Israeli airstrike in Syrian territory on Wednesday.
Iran's deputy foreign minister told state TV that the "Israeli bombing in Syria will have grave consequences on Tel Aviv," Haaretz reports.
On Saturday a top aide to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that any "attack on Syria is considered (an) attack on Iran and Iran’s allies.”
Syria's ambassador to Lebanon said the Damascus has "the option and the surprise to retaliate," Al Jazeera reports.
Early Wednesday Israeli jets bombed a target near Damascus in southwest Syria. The U.S., Syrian rebels and regional security sources told Reuters the warplanes hit a weapons convoy carrying antiaircraft missiles from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria, Iran and Hezbollah contend that the target was a military research center in Damascus. The Syrian opposition claims rebels attacked the facility with mortars.
"It appears that there were about a dozen rockets that appeared to hit one building in the complex," an unnamed rebel source told Reuters.
Either way there is no doubt that the act has raised the geopolitical conflict in the region to the next level. Mark Urban of Newsnight details how the attack is one more sign of an alarming deterioration of the security situation across the Middle East.
Russia condemned the attack, saying that "we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it," according to a statement by its foreign ministry.
Israeli security chief Yaakov Amidror is currently in Russia to discuss the Syrian crisis while Israel Defense Force intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi is in Washington for consultations with American officials.
On Tuesday Israeli Minister of Home Front Defence Avi Dichter told Israel Radio that options to prevent Syria from using or transferring chemical or conventional weapons included deterrence and “attempts to hit the stockpiles.
AFP notes that earlier this week Israel transferred two batteries of its Iron Dome anti-missile system to the the country's north, and press reports also spoke of a spike in demand for gas masks.
Former top military intelligence official Danny Rothschild recently told army radio that Israel "could face an attack by Hezbollah or possibly Syria, that's why we must prepare our defences and Iron Dome is part of that."
On Tuesday Israeli Air Force (IAF) chief Major-General Amir Eshel told an international aerospace conference that the IAF was involved in "a campaign between wars," working with Israeli intelligence agencies in often covert missions "to reduce the immediate threats [and] to create better conditions in which we will be able to win the wars, when they happen."
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