BICOM

After a weekend in which air strikes, thought to have been carried out by Israel, struck Syrian military installations, Israeli officials sought yesterday to calm tensions in the region.

Israel has not confirmed responsibility for the air operations, but the strike appears to have targeted sophisticated Iranian weaponry near Damascus, being transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon. This included a consignment of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles, which have the same range but greater accuracy than a Scud missile. Although Faisal al-Mokdad, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, told CNN that the air strike was a “declaration of war” by Israel, Foreign Secretary William Hague said that he “respected” Israel’s right to defend itself, a message also voiced by the White House.

Israeli officials yesterday looked to calm tensions, as the head of IDF Northern Command, Major-General Yair Golan commented before participating in an army fun run, “There are no winds of war… There is no need to get into hysterics, everything is calm, the residents of the north can sleep in peace.” In a further effort to project quiet, the IDF reopened civilian airspace in the north of the country. Meanwhile, a long-planned military drill in northern Israel was scaled back. Likud Knesset member and former minister Tzachi Hanegbi commented that the air strikes were aimed “only against Hezbollah, not against the Syrian regime.” Perhaps most significantly though, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opted not to postpone a five-day trip to China, arriving in Shanghai yesterday, where he declined to answer questions about the air strike.

Nonetheless, two mortars fired from Syria landed overnight in the southern part of the Israeli Golan Heights. It is thought that the incident was a case of unintentional stray fire as a result of the fighting between troops loyal to Syrian President Assad and opposition groups seeking his downfall.