Pompeo Supports Israel’s Airstrikes in Syria, Backs Tel Aviv’s Right to ‘Defend Itself’

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he supports “Israel’s right to defend itself from threats posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” after the Israeli military carried out an attack on targets inside Syria on Saturday on allegedly Iranian targets.

Pompeo tweeted that he spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday regarding the airstrikes in Syria and expressed his support, claiming that the drone airstrikes were carried out as a part of “Israel’s right to defend itself from threats posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps” and “prevent imminent attacks against Israeli assets.”

Spoke with Israeli PM @Netanyahu today regarding recent Israeli airstrikes in #Syria. I expressed my support for Israel’s right to defend itself from threats posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps & to take action to prevent imminent attacks against Israeli assets.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 25, 2019

In a separate tweet, Pompeo said he supported Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stance that “Israel would strike IRGC targets threatening Israel, wherever they are located.”

We discussed how #Iran is leveraging its foothold in Syria to threaten Israel and its neighbors. The Prime Minister @netanyahu noted that Israel would strike IRGC targets threatening Israel, wherever they are located.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 25, 2019

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that Israeli officials had been monitoring what they believed to be the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s secretive Quds force’s plot to send explosives-laden attack drones into Israel for several months. However, Mohsen Rezaee, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, an advisory body under the supreme leader, has rejected the Israeli military’s claims that Iranian forces were hit in the overnight airstrikes near Damascus in an interview with the ILNA news agency.

Israel took control of part of Syria’s Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War, and formally annexed the territory in 1981. Shortly thereafter, the United Nations declared Tel Aviv’s move “null and void and without international legal effect.” In March, however, US President Donald Trump officially recognised the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, prompting international criticism.