Reports of Israel striking Syria worrying- Russia
May 7, 2013, 8:27 am

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the issue in a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem on Monday [Getty Images]

“We are also verifying and analysing all circumstances surrounding the particularly worrying reports of airstrikes on Damascus suburbs carried out by Israel on May 3 and 5,” Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

“The further escalation of an armed confrontation sharply increases the risk of new hotbeds of tension forming, which, apart from Syria, might also emerge in Lebanon,” the spokesman said in a statement published on the ministry’s website.

He said that the airstrikes might also “destabilise the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which so far remains relatively calm.”

Israel is widely believed to have carried out several airstrikes on Syria during the past few days, though it has not officially confirmed that it did so.

Reuters reported, citing unnamed Western intelligence sources, that the airstrikes targeted a shipment of Iranian-made Fateh-110 guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the Israeli attack targeted a research facility near the capital Damascus.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the issue in a phone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem that was held on Monday at the initiative of the Syrian side.

According to a report by Syria’s state TV, Muallem said that under international laws and the UN Charter, his country “has the right to retaliate against such aggression.”

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that during the conversation Lavrov “reiterated the inadmissibility of violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and other states in the region, especially in the context of the devastating and dangerous internal conflict in Syria.”

Source: Agencies