Israel refuses any limitation on its war on Iran in Syria

I do not know what the source for this is.Confirmation will have to come later.

Israeli defense minister claims right of 'total freedom of action' in **Syrian** airspace

Hal Turner,

15 April, 2018

Israel will not accept any limitations to its operations in Syrian airspace against 'Iranian threat', the defense minister said, expressing hope that "communication" lines with Moscow will help avoid any "friction" in the air.

On Tuesday morning, a series of missile strikes once again targeted Syrian military infrastructure. The Pentagon, which led the coordinated April 14 assault against Syrian targets with its British and French allies, denied its involvement in attacking a new set of targets. Israel, which struck Syria's Tiyas (T-4) airfield in Homs province on April 9, also failed to acknowledge bombing its neighbor.

Yet the new attack against Syria comes just hours after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed to protect the country's national interests through breaching Syrian airspace if necessary.

"We will maintain total freedom of action. We will not accept any limitation when it comes to the defense of our security interests,"Lieberman told Walla News on Monday, noting that "all options are on the table."

Two Israeli F-15 fighters targeted Syria's T-4 airbase in Homs province, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed after the surprise attack on April 9. The jets fired eight guided missiles, but five of them were shot down before they hit the airfield. The attack on the T-4 base came at a critical time after Western powers accused the Syrian government and vowed retaliation for an alleged chlorine attack in the militant-held town of Douma on April 7.

Russia, which has a military coordination hotline with Israel to avoid clashes over Syria, called the strike a "very dangerous development." Moscow also noted earlier that it will shoot down any projectiles that could threaten Russian personnel on the ground.

On Monday, Lieberman praised the Israeli-Russian deconfliction hotline, noting the success of the established mechanism to avert any "friction" in the Syrian skies.

"We do not want to provoke the Russians," Lieberman told Walla News. "We have an open line of communication at the level of senior officers. The Russians understand us and the fact is that for years we have managed to avoid friction with them."

While respecting Russia's interests in Syria, Israel will keep on confronting the Iranian threat on its borders, Liberman noted, reiterating Tel Aviv's position that Israeli armed forces have the right to strike Iranian-linked targets that Israel believes are destined for Lebanese Hezbollah.

"We have to do what we are forced to do. We will not allow Iranian consolidation in Syria," Liberman said. "We will not tolerate a significant Iranian military force in Syria in the form of military ports and airports or the deployment of sophisticated weaponry."

Speaking to members of the IDF General Staff later on Monday, the defense minister called for "further strengthen preparedness" for the Israeli military to tackle the Iranian threat.

"We are facing a new reality—the Lebanese army, in cooperation with Hezbollah, the Syrian army, the Shiite militias in Syria and above them Iran—are all becoming a single front against the State of Israel," Lieberman noted.

 The T-4 strike earlier this month, which Israel has yet to officially acknowledge, reportedly targeted Iran's drone program. The attack allegedly killed seven Iranian soldiers out of at least 14 reported fatalities.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassem condemned the attack, noting that Israel will "sooner or later receive the necessary responses to its recent crime and aggression."

"Gone are the days of 'hit and run' for Israel," Qassem said. "Resistance forces in the region are able to respond at the right place and the right time."

US says Israel carried out deadly strike on Syria air base

Lavrov says strike a 'very dangerous development'; No comment from Israel on allegations it carried out attack

The United States, Russia and Syria said Israel carried out a deadly airstrike on an Iran-operated air base in Syria's central Homs province overnight Monday, with Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov describing the raid as a "very dangerous development."

Russia's defense ministry said that two F-15 Israeli warplanes launched eight missiles at the Tayfur (or "T4") airbase from within Lebanese airspace between 03:25 am and 03:53 am Moscow time (0025 GMT and 0053 GMT).

It said that five of the eight missiles were shot down by air defense systems, but the remaining three struck "the Western part of the airbase."

A US official also told NBC News that Israel carried out the attack and that Israeli officials forewarned Washington in advance.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued no official response to allegations that it was behind the attack that a war monitor said killed 14 people. 

Iranian state media said three Iranians were among the dead.A Syrian military source cited by the state-run SANA news agency also accused Israel of launching the attack, saying that "the Israeli attack on the T-4 airport was carried out with F-15 aircraft that fired several missiles from above Lebanese territory."

Russia's outing of Israel, with which it has established a coordination hotline to avoid clashes over Syria, was unprecedented.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the strike a "very dangerous development."

"I hope at least that the US military and those of the countries participating in the coalition led by the United States understand that," Lavrov told a press conference.

SANA first reported the raid as a "suspected US attack," but later withdrew all reference to the US as Washington and France both denied involvement.Several pro-Assad Syrian news outlets and Lebanese outlets later indicated that Israel was likely behind the strike.

Lebanon's army said that four Israeli aircraft breached and flew for ten minutes through Lebanese airspace. The country's Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen outlet earlier claimed that an Israeli surveillance aircraft was spotted over the base at the time of the strike.

The country's Al-Masdar news site cited a Syrian military source as saying jets entered Syrian airspace from Lebanon’s Beqa’a Valley, a route that foreign press reports say is typically used by Israel to launch strikes in Syria.

A military spokeswoman for Israel declined to comment on the strike which targeted the same airbase hit by Israel in February after an Iranian drone breached its airspace.Archive IDF footage from T4 Airbase

After bombing Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israel F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire in one of the conflict's most notable escalations.

Israel then carried out what it called "large-scale" raids on Syrian air defense systems and Iranian targets, which reportedly included T-4.

A number of strikes on targets in Syria have been attributed to Israel, though it rarely confirms such raids.Israel has repeatedly warned that it will not accept its arch-foe Iran entrenching itself militarily in Syria.

Construction Minister Yoav Galant, a former IDF major general and a member of Israel’s security cabinet, reiterated Israel's "red lines" in Syria though he declined to comment directly on Monday's strike.

“In Syria many forces, from various bodies and coalitions, are operating. Each one says what it says and denies what it denies,” Galant told Israel Radio.

“We have clear interests in Syria and we set red lines. We will not allow weapons to pass from Syria to Lebanon, and we will not allow the establishment of an Iranian base.

”Monday's raid came as worldwide outrage mounted over a reported chemical weapons attack on a rebel-controlled town outside the Syrian capital.

Aid groups in Douma, the last rebel-held town in the besieged Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus, said that patients showing signs of "respiratory distress, central cyanosis, excessive oral foaming, corneal burns, and the emission of chlorine-like odor" presented themselves after air raids on Saturday.

At least 42 civilians were killed in the attack, which the United States, Turkey and the European Union said was likely carried out by the government of President Bashar Al-Assad, who is waging an 8-years-long battle to shore up his family's authoritarian rule.

US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron vowed a "strong, joint response" to the reported use of toxic gas in the rebel-held town of Douma, but both countries denied launching the assault.

IsraelAdmits to Striking Syria: 'It Was the First Time We Attacked LiveIranian Targets' 

• A senior Israeli military official tells The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman: 'It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets — both facilities and people'
• The official notes that the armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace 'opened a new period'

IDF walks back explosive Syria strike claim in NYT

The Israeli military on Monday attempted to distance itself from a quote by a senior military source in the New York Times admitting Israeli responsibility for a deadly raid on an Iranian air base in Syria. 

“It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets -- both facilities and people,” the unnamed Israeli military source admitted to NYT opinion writer Thomas Friedman in a column published on Sunday. 

Israel, per long-standing policy, has not publicly claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn air raid targeting the Tayfur (or "T4") airbase in Syria's central Homs province last Monday, which killed several Iranian personnel.The United States, Russia, Syria, and Iran have all said that the strike was carried out by Israel.

After the quote was widely reported in Israel and abroad, Friedman updated the column to disclose that he had been contacted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson's unit. 

"After the story appeared, the Israeli Army’s spokesman’s office disputed the characterization and accuracy of the raid by my Israeli source," Friedman's addition said, "and emphasized that Israel maintains its policy to avoid commenting on media reports regarding the raid on the T4 airfield and other events.

"Israeli officials often hint at being behind dozens of strikes against Syrian targets in recent years, but rarely do so openly. 

When asked about the Times article on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman declined to confirm it, but noted that: "we have to do what we are forced to do. We will not allow Iranian consolidation in Syria."

At the time of the strike, witnesses in Lebanon say Israeli fighter jets roared over their territory on the way to Syria. 

 Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen outlet earlier claimed that an Israeli surveillance aircraft was spotted over the base at the time of the strike.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said they will not allow Iran to establish a military infrastructure in Syria, where Tehran has long been allied to the ruling Assad family.

Israeli war planes have reportedly struck targets in Syria dozens of times, usually weapons stockpiles it feared would be transferred to Hezbollah.

Israel girds for retaliation as Iran threatens response over airbase strike

Iran threatens comeuppance following Israel's strike on the T-4 Airbase in Syria, which killed seven Iranian soldiers; Lieberman takes note, stresses security should be stepped up.

YNet,

16 April, 2018

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stressed on Monday military preparedness and security will need to be bolstered, taking the cue from Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi who threatened just hours prior that Israel will regret the "misdeed" of striking at the T-4 Airbase in Syria—an attack which claimed the lives of seven Iranian soldiers.

"This is a strategic challenge of the first order, which obligates all of us, the IDF and the defense establishment, to step up and further strengthen preparedness," Lieberman said to members of the IDF General Staff at an event marking Israel's upcoming Independence Day.

"We are facing a new reality—the Lebanese army, in cooperation with Hezbollah, the Syrian army, the Shiite militias in Syria and above them Iran—are all becoming a single front against the State of Israel," Lieberman cautioned.

This came after Qassemi was stated saying, "Gone are the days when the Zionist regime would hit and run. The resistance forces and Syria can defend their territorial integrity and national sovereignty," he asserted.

He then asserted that Israel will "sooner or later receive the necessary responses to its recent crime and aggression."

Tensions between Israel and Iran have spiked ever since the airstrike—"the first time (Israel) attacked live Iranian targets—both facilities and people," as confirmed Monday by a senior IDF official in an interview with the New York Times.

The IDF was girding itself for an Iranian retaliation, the Times article said, but expected it to be proportional and measured. If such a retaliatory strike carried a toll of Israeli lives, however, tensions may spill over in the already combustible region.

Several moves undertaken last week attested to the Iranian determination to retaliate, Friedman said. First is the Iranian admission that its officers were killed in the original strike and their intentionally public and publicized funeral in Tehran—contrary to previous instances of Iranian casualties being severely downplayed by the Islamic republic.

From Iran's Press TV

Russia cannot limit Israel's actions in Syria, Lieberman says