DAMASCUS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Foreign Ministry summoned on Thursday the leader of the UN Disengagement Observer Force ( UNDOF) and filed an official complaint about the Israeli attack that targeted a Syrian military research center in the capital Damascus a day earlier.
In a statement carried out by the state-media, the ministry informed Major General Iqbal Singh Singha that Israel had violated the charter of disengagement concluded in 1974, by penetrating the Syrian airspace and bombing the military research center in Jumraya suburb of Damascus.
The ministry held the UN Security Council responsible for the results of the aggression, stressing Syria's right in defending itself, its sovereignty and territories in the face of any aggression.
It also said the Security Council's failure in condemning the Israeli attacks would have its repercussions on the entire region and international peace alike.
Israeli war jets carried out an airstrike at dawn Wednesday that hit a military research site in the Jumraya suburb of the capital Damascus, local media said, as western officials speculated that the airstrike targeted a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry from Syria to Lebanon's Hezbollah. Israeli has been keeping silent about the rare airstrike.
A Syrian military statement said Wednesday evening that Israeli war jets sneaked off radars and hit a center for scientific research in a suburb of Damascus at dawn, adding that the attack came after many unsuccessful attempts by the "armed terrorist groups" to capture this site over the past months.
The Syrian military hinted that the Israeli air raid played in the hands of the rebels.
Decrying the move as "flagrant intervention" to the Syrian airspace, the military contended that Israel is the driving force and beneficiary of the terrorist acts committed in Syria with the partnership of Qatar and Turkey. The statement, however, said nothing about a possible payback.
Syria has technically been in a state of war with Israel since its creation in 1948. Their enmity has risen with the Syrian administration rendering support to the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israel war. Syria fought another war in 1973 after which it regained small parts of land that Israel occupied six years earlier.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday noted with "grave concern" reports of Israeli air strikes in Syria and called on all concerned to prevent an escalation of tensions in the region.
Israeli war jets sneaked off radars and hit a Syrian military research center in the capital Damascus at dawn Wednesday, the General Command of the Syrian Military said in a statement. Full story
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The president of the UN Security Council for January, Masood Khan, on Thursday confirmed that Syria has sent a letter to the 15-nation UN body on the reported Israeli air strike on Syria, saying that the council is " monitoring" the subsequent heightened tensions.
Khan, the Pakistani UN ambassador who holds the rotating council presidency for January, made the remarks at a press conference here to mark the end of his month-long presidency. Kim Soo, the permanent representative of the Republic of Korea, is expected to take over the council presidency on Friday. Full story
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