Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged for the first time Jan. 13 that Israel has carried out strikes against Iranian and Iranian-backed forces inside Syria. “We worked with impressive success to block Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. He added that Israel had carried out “hundreds of strikes,” claiming that it had just recently targeted alleged Iranian warehouses and Iranian targets at the international airport in Damascus and that Israel will continue such strikes as long as an Iranian presence remains in Syria.
Iran’s response to these attacks has been mostly muted. With the exception of the 2015 strike in Syria that killed Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, alongside Jihad Mughniyah, former Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyah’s son, Iran has not divulged much information or visibly reacted to alleged attacks by Israel.
However, Netanyahu’s recent comments changed things and Iranian military commanders have finally responded. Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responded to Netanyahu's statement. “We will protect all of the military and revolutionary advisers and equipment and arms for training and empowering Islamic resistance fighters and support the oppressed people of Syria,” Jafari said Jan. 16.
Bahram Ghassemi, spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented Jan. 14, “We do not have a military base in Syria. We have a presence in Syria at the request of the Syrian government for advisory work and combatting terrorism.” On Netanyahu’s claims of hundreds of strikes on Iranian and Iranian-backed forces, Ghassemi said, “Whatever they say about Iranian forces is a great lie, and they cannot hide the victories the Syrian army and defense forces and the resistance forces have achieved. This is what has angered the [Israeli] regime.” In May 2018, Ghassemi said, “As long there is the danger of terrorism and the Syrian government requests it,” Iranian and Iranian-backed forces will remain in Syria.
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