Caretaker Lebanese Transportation Minister Youssef Fenianos said the aerial
assaults had put at risk the lives of hundreds of civilians, who were on board
passenger planes flying over Lebanon at the time of the attack.
A statement, released by Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry, denounced Israel's use of
Lebanese airspace to launch attacks against "friendly countries” – in reference
to Syria.
It called on the UN and the international community to denounce the aggression.
Lebanon’s Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil also instructed Lebanese
Ambassador to the UN Amal Mudallali to lodge a complaint against Israel at the
Security Council.
Russian officials said on Wednesday that Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday night had
threatened two airliners that were preparing to land in Damascus and Beirut.
"The provocative actions of the Israeli air force ... directly threatened two
airliners,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a
statement.
He added that Israel had launched the raid at the time when two civilian
airliners were preparing to land, creating a "direct threat” to the aircraft.
Konashenkov highlighted that the Syrian military didn't fully engage its air
defense systems in a bid to avoid hitting the passenger jets accidentally.
He added that Syrian air traffic controllers had redirected the Damascus-bound
plane to the Russian-operated Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s western coastal
province of Leticia.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced in a statement that Syria’s air defense
missile systems had successfully downed 14 of 16 guided missiles fired during
the air raid, adding that six Israeli F-16 jets had taken part in the operation.
The development came only two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said that US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American
troops from Syria would not affect the Tel Aviv regime’s policy toward the
war-torn country.
"The decision to withdraw 2,000 US troops from Syria will not change our
consistent policy: We will continue to act against Iran's attempts to entrench
itself militarily in Syria, and to the extent necessary, we will even expand our
actions there," Netanyahu said.
On November 30, Syrian air defenses were activated against several missiles,
which were aimed at the city of al-Kiswah, located approximately 13 kilometers
south of Damascus.
They "were able to foil its goals despite the intensity of the aggression,"
Syrian state media said at the time.
Israeli media claimed that Iranian military advisers as well as fighters from
the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah were the main targets in the attack.
Israeli officials argue that Iran’s presence in Syria, which is part of an
advisory mission requested by the Damascus government, poses a threat to the Tel
Aviv regime’s security.
The Israeli military, using this pretext, has pounded alleged positions of
Iranian and Iran-backed forces across Syria over the course of the seven-year
conflict.
The attacks are usually viewed as attempts to prop up foreign-sponsored Takfiri
terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian
government forces and allied fighters from popular defense groups.
Israel and the United States have even put pressure on Russia, another close
ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the war against terrorist groups, to
force Iran out of Syria.
In October, Russia equipped the Syrian army with the advanced S-300
surface-to-air missiles, days after Israeli fighter jets used Russian
surveillance aircraft flying nearby as a shield and misled the Syrian air
defenses to shoot it down. Since then, Israel has been very careful with its
operations over Syria.
Source:PressTV