MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) – Iran condemned on Sunday the recent Israeli airstrikes on Syria and urged regional countries to resist such acts of ‘aggression,’ Fars news agency reported, referring to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast.
Syria’s official news agency SANA has reported Israel carried out early on Sunday a missile attack on a military research center outside the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Syrian state television has broadcast video footage showing a series of large explosions around the Jamraya research center, which is located about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The airstrike occurred just a day after an Israeli official said Israel had carried out an airstrike targeting a consignment of missiles in Syria allegedly intended for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. The Jamraya facility hit on Sunday was also the target of an Israeli airstrike in January.
Top Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed their concern that sophisticated weapons from the Syrian stockpiles may end up in the hands of Hezbollah, a relentless foe of the Israeli state.
In the meantime, IRNA news agency quoted the commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, as saying that Iran was ready to help train the Syrian army, if Syria needed such assistance.
“As a Muslim nation, we support Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with training but won't have any active involvement in the operations," he was quoted as saying.
The Syrian conflict, which started in March 2011 with peaceful protests demanding reforms, has gradually turned into a civil war in response to the government’s military crackdown on the protesters.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations, and the death toll is growing every day as the fierce fighting between government troops and rebels continues.
In addition, the UN Refugee Agency estimates the number of persons displaced by the conflict at 1.3 million people, with almost 1.1 million officially registered and some 250,000 awaiting registration.
