Syria Says ‘All Possibilities’ Open After Israel Strike
Image by getty images
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said on Sunday that Israeli air strikes against three targets on the outskirts of Damascus “open the door to all possibilities.”
The minister’s comments at a press conference came after an emergency cabinet meeting organised to respond to what a Western source said was a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Although Zoabi did not hint at a concrete course of action, he said it was Damascus’s duty to protect the state from any “domestic or foreign attack through all available means.”
Sunday’s attack is the third Israeli assault this year on Syrian soil. Previous strikes on Syria by Israel – which commands one of the most advanced militaries in the world and is backed by the United States – have not elicited a military response from Syria or its allies Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel declined to confirm the strike so as not to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into serious retaliation, according to a confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Syria’s revolt-turned-civil war has entered its third year and 70,000 people have been killed. Millions have been displaced and the conflict threatens to destabilise the entire region and draw in world powers who hope to influence the outcome.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
