Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the country is able to confront Israeli aggression, in his first remarks since Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes on Syria over the weekend.
"The recent Israeli aggressions expose the size of the complicity between the Israeli occupation, regional countries, and the West in backing the current events in Syria," Assad was quoted as saying on Tuesday by Lebanon’s Al-Manar television network.
"The Syrian people and their heroic army… are capable of confronting this Israeli adventure, which represents one of the faces of terrorism that is targeting Syria every day."
On Friday and Sunday, Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes on Syria. Afterwards, the Syrian government called the attacks a “flagrant violation of international law.”
On Sunday, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Syria. A statement issued by Lebanon’s presidential office read: “Sleiman strongly condemned Israel’s aggression on Syrian sites [which it carried out] by violating Lebanese airspace to carry out these attacks.”
“This act is not unusual for a mutual enemy [such as Israel] whose policy is based on aggression that takes advantage of the circumstances Syria is going through to carry out its aggression just as it used to do in Lebanon during its days of crisis,” the statement added.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry has sent letters to the UN Security Council stating that Israel’s aggression shows the links between Tel Aviv and terrorist groups operating in Syria, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi told reporters in Damascus on Sunday that Syria had the right and the duty to defend its people by all available means and it would not give in to Israeli acts of aggression.
The Israeli attacks on Syria have made the Middle East more dangerous, the Syrian information minister stated.
The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
GJH/HGL
PRESTV
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