A top Iranian general said Wednesday that his country will maintain its military presence in Syria, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would press ahead with its campaign against Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will keep its military advisers, revolutionary forces and its weapons in Syria,” said the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari, according to the Reuters news agency which cited Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency.
Netanyahu told the Iranians to “get out” of Syria on Tuesday, mocking claims from Tehran that it did not have a military presence in Syria but only advisers.
“I advise them to get out of there quickly because we will continue our offensive policy as we promised and as we do without fear and without pause,” the premier said at a ceremony at army headquarters in Tel Aviv to install new IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi.
He added that the country was ready to fight and win a “multi-front war,” in apparent reference to concerns over twin tensions on the southern and northern borders.
On Sunday, Netanyahu openly admitted that Israel bombed Iranian targets in Damascus over the weekend. The strike destroyed a number of weapons caches in the Damascus airport, Netanyahu said.
Israel typically refrains from commenting on individual airstrikes in Syria, but does generally acknowledge that it carries out raids against Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked targets in the country.
Over the weekend, outgoing chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said for the first time that Israel had dropped thousands of bombs on Iranian targets in Syria, breaking the silence on the breadth of the campaign.
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