Netanyahu: Israel Will Continue to Strike Syria Despite S-300 Defenses

Says Trump gave him repeated guarantees about freedom to act

Russia’s announcement earelier this week that they intend to deliver as many as eight S-300 air defense systems to Syria, to cover the entire country’s airspace, provoked a lot of anger from Israel and the US, who complained it is an escalation, and threatens regional stability.

Syria continues to say it expects that the S-300 defenses will give Israel pause against attacking them in the future. Israel, however, does not expect this to have any impact on their continued attacks on Syria.

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has received multiple “guarantees” from President Trump that he remains free to operate militarily against Syria as he wishes, and that the Russian deliveries won’t be allowed to threaten that.

Netanyahu wasn’t clear what these guarantees were, or how they would negate the realities of the S-300s having the capability of shooting down any Israeli planes that raid Syrian airspace and attack Syria.

Russia’s shipments are clear retaliation for last week’s Israeli attack that led to the downing of a Russian plane, and is obviously intended in part to limit future Israeli attacks.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.