Top U.S. Inteligence Chief:

Zionist Strikes in Syria Have Not Deterred Iran

Date: 30 January 2019 - 21:09

News ID: ۶۲۶۹۷

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The top U.S. intelligence chief warned that the occupying regime of Israel’s ongoing strikes against Iranian targets in Syria increase the threat of regional war.
"We assess that Iran seeks to avoid a major armed conflict with Israel," Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "However, Israeli strikes that result in Iranian casualties increase the likelihood of Iranian conventional retaliation against Israel."
His assessment echoes concerns raised by Zionist officials that Iran would likely increase their responses to Israeli strikes in Syria.
Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, the occupying regime’s president Reuven Rivlin warned that Tehran would likely "intensify its responses” to Israeli strikes against its forces in Syria.
"I believe Iran will retaliate with greater force,” he said, adding it appeared as though Iran "would be restrained by our understandings with Russia” but in recent months the trend was changing.
The occupying regime of Israel rarely comments on its attacks in Syria, but former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot said that the Zionist regime fired 2,000 missiles at targets in Syria in 2018 alone.
But, according to Coates, Israeli strikes have not deterred the Iranians who continue "to pursue permanent military bases and economic deals in Syria.”
In early January, Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that the occupying regime had a permanent policy of preventing Iran's entrenchment in Syria.
Last year, Nitzan Alon, who was in charge of a special military project to coordinate all issues related to Iran, warned that the chances of war were greater than ever before due to the victories of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.