Pope urges Congo, South Sudan to work for peace, prosperity.

Iran’s foreign minister has condemned an Israeli airstrike on Syria and says Tehran opposes any military operation by Turkey in Syria’s north. Hossein Amirabdollahian made his comments Saturday at the start of a visit to the Syrian capital Damascus.

Iran has been one of the Syrian government’s strongest backers, sending thousands of fighters from around the region to help Syrian troops in the country’s 11-year conflict.

The visit come hours after an Israeli airstrike on Syria and after Turkey’s president has said repeatedly that he’s planning a major military operation to create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) deep buffer zone inside Syria along Turkey’s border.

Mr. Amirabdollahian’s visit came hours after Israel carried out an airstrike on a coastal Syrian village near the border with Lebanon wounding two people, Syrian state media reported.

It also comes after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said he’s planning a major military operation to create a 30KM (19 mile) deep buffer zone inside Syria along Turkey’s border. He said he would do that by way of a cross-border incursion against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters — an attempt that failed in 2019.

Mr. Amirabdollahian blasted Israel saying that through its airstrikes it is trying to destabilise Syria and show that the country lacks security.

The Israel attack was the first since a June 10 airstrike on the international airport in the Syrian capital of Damascus caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways and rendered the main runway unusable. The airport was closed for two weeks and flights resumed on June 23.Israel has staged hundreds of strikes against targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel says it targets bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Hezbollah, which has fighters deployed in Syria fighting on the side of Assad’s government forces and ships arms believed to be bound for the militias.

The Damascus International Airport strike marked a major escalation in Israel’s campaign, further ratcheting up tensions between Israel on one side and Iran and its Lebanese ally, the militant Hezbollah group, on the other.

Please follow and like us: