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Benjamin Netanyahu Vows Israel Will Defend Itself Against Syrian Attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel was not involved in Syria’s civil war, but would respond forcefully to any attempts to attack it.

“The state of Israel is prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said in a statement after holding security consultations in Tel Aviv.

“We are not a party to this civil war in Syria but if we identify any attempt to attack us we will respond and we will respond forcefully.”

Many in Israel worry that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, embroiled in a 2-1/2 year uprising against his rule, could strike out at the Jewish state in retaliation to any Western attack.

Syria’s ally Iran warned on Tuesday against foreign military intervention in Syria, saying the resulting conflict would engulf the region.

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