Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for more active action by Russia, Iran and Syria to protect Syria’s territorial integrity after recent Israeli strikes on Damascus. This was reported by Reuters.
“We will stand for an urgent and permanent peace in Syria… Israel is the most concrete threat to regional and global peace,” Erdogan said in an interview with Turkish media.
According to him, Russia, Iran and Syria must act more effectively to deter threats that, in his view, undermine Syria’s territorial integrity.
Israeli strikes on Syria
According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, on Thursday morning, Israel conducted an air strike on an industrial zone in the Homs region, located in the centre of Syria. This happened the day after another strike in the south of the country. SANA reports that the attack damaged a factory and vehicles transporting medical supplies and humanitarian aid, causing a massive fire.
Israel has been regularly conducting strikes in Syria since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011, targeting Syrian armed forces and Iranian-backed groups such as Hezbollah, which are acting on the side of the Syrian government.
Israel rarely comments on these strikes, but claims that it will not allow Iran, its main enemy, to expand its influence in Syria.
Last week, an Israeli strike on the Golan Heights killed a Syrian policeman, and another Hezbollah militant was killed in another strike.
Also on Tuesday evening, an airstrike on the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus killed seven civilians.
Israel’s reaction
General Herzi Halevi, Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, promised to continue strikes against Hezbollah and said that Israel would attack continuously, emphasising its determination to curb the group’s influence on the border with Lebanon.
