Syrian Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Sussan has issued a statement today regarding the weekend Israeli attacks on Syrian targets, saying that despite years of war, Syria remains able to confront attacks.
Over the weekend, Israel launched an attack on Syria, during which one of its F-16 warplanes was shot down. Israel responded with massive attacks, which they say left roughly half of Syria’s air defenses were destroyed.
Sussan, however, warned Israel shouldn’t take their position for granted, saying they would face “more surprises whenever they try to attack Syria.” It’s not clear what these surprises are, but Israeli officials have said they intend to “press ahead” with operations inside Syria.
It may be, however, that Syria’s air defenses are not so decisively destroyed as Israel’s Air Force suggests, and with Russia having supplied the initial air defenses, it’s likely that Russia might come up with yet more air defenses to cover Syrian airspace, and might be warning Israel away from further attacks.
Though there is little detail on exactly what happened over the weekend, some reports credit Russia for getting Israel to stop its Saturday attacks. If Syria believes Russia is protecting it from further attacks, that might offer another explanation for Sussan’s confidence about future Israeli strikes.