Syria says Israel deserved Hizbollah attacks

khaleej Times/Reuters

Syria said on Wednesday Israel was responsible for an operation by its ally Hizbollah in which two Israeli soldiers were captured.

"Occupation is what provokes the Palestinian and Lebanese people," Vice President Farouq al-Shara told reporters.

"The resistance in south Lebanon and among the Palestinian people decides solely what to do and why."

Syria supports demands by Hizbollah, a Shia group also backed by Iran, for Israel to pull out of Shebaa Farms, an area near the Golan Heights which the United Nations says is Syrian land, but which Syria describes as Lebanese.

It also supports the group's demand for Israel to free several Lebanese prisoners still in its jails, including at least one who has been in captivity for more than two decades.

Shara, a former foreign minister, did not say whether he expected Israel to launch strikes against Syria in retaliation for the Hizbollah operation.

Israel has already hinted it could assassinate members of Hamas's exiled leadership in Syria after the military wing of the Palestinian movement took part in an attack that captured an Israeli soldier near Gaza on June 25. Link