Recent airstrikes on Syria, attributed by Syrian officials to Israel, have led to friction between Syria’s military and their Russian counterparts, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on Monday.
A senior Syrian official who spoke to the paper, which is affiliated with the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah, slammed Russia for essentially ignoring the alleged Israeli attacks, and tacitly giving Jerusalem a green light to carry on such strikes, so long as no Russian troops are hurt.
“The Israelis target sites that are inside Russian-controlled areas, and they [the Russian troops] don’t even fire interceptors at the missiles,” the official lamented.
“The blood boils over Russia’s silence when it comes to Israel taking advantage of airborne Russian cargo and reconnaissance planes when they carry out attacks [by supposedly hiding behind their radar signal], and this prevents the Syrian air defense from engaging the attackers,” he added.
The unusual comments come amid reported tensions between Iran and Syria. The latter, according to an Al-Arabiya report, wants Iran’s influence in the country scaled down, as it is a potential destabilizing factor. According to sources who spoke with the network, Syria is considering actions that would severely curtail Iran’s activity, mainly along the coast.
This report first appeared in Israel Hayom.
