Syria entitled to give crushing response to Israel: Iran MP

An Iranian lawmaker has censured the Israeli regime’s aerial assault on a research center near the Syrian capital, Damascus, saying the Syrian nation upholds a legal right to give a crushing response to Tel Aviv.

“Damascus retaliation against the illegal move of the Zionist regime [of Israel] is a right of the Syrian people,” a member of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Mohammad Hassan Asafari said on Thursday.

He added that the Israeli regime’s move was a clear breach of international law, saying Tel Aviv violated Syria’s territory and the international community must take serious stance regarding the issue.

The Iranian legislator emphasized that during the upcoming summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Egypt, Muslim countries should not merely issue a statement in condemnation of Tel Aviv’s attack on Syria but should also adopt a serious attitude to Israeli officials.

Asafari noted that if a proper response is not given to the Israeli regime at present, it will dare to carry out further attacks on the Syrian territory.

He urged the OIC, the UN and the Security Council to condemn the Israeli regime’s airstrike against Syria and the violation of the Arab country’s airspace and adopt a clear and firm stance on Tel Aviv’s military operation.

On January 30, the Syrian army said two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a research center in Jamraya, near the capital. The Israeli regime declined to comment on the issue.

In a letter to the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, the Syrian Foreign Ministry urged the body to issue a “clear condemnation of the flagrant Israeli attack on the territories of a sovereign state and the Israeli violation of the UN Charter, the international law, the Disengagement of Forces Agreement in 1974 and the relevant UNSC resolutions.”

On Thursday, Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah strongly condemned the Israeli attack and said it was “barbaric aggression.”