Danon demands UNSC condemn ‘Iranian aggression’ following Golan attack

Published: MAY 10, 2018 21:52

Updated: MAY 10, 2018 21:57

Ambassador Danon speaking with the UN ambassadors at Masada (photo credit: AVI DODI) — Ambassador Danon speaking with the UN ambassadors at Masada

(photo credit: AVI DODI)

“Israel is not interested in escalation, but under no circumstances will we allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria..."

NEW YORK - Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon demanded the United Nations Security Council condemn Iran on Thursday after claiming its forces launched a missile attack on the Golan Heights from Syria.

In a fiery letter also addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Danon stated that “Israel holds the government of Iran, together with the Syrian regime, directly responsible for this attack and we will continue to defend our citizens vigorously against all acts of aggression.”

“Israel is not interested in escalation, but under no circumstances will we allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria whose purpose is to attack Israel and to deteriorate an already fragile situation in the region,” wrote Danon.

Israel struck 50 Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds Force fired 20 rockets toward Israel’s front defensive line in the Golan Heights earlier in the day.

There were no injuries or damage from the barrage as no projectile landed inside Israel, the IDF said, adding that four missiles had been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, which had been deployed in the north.

“This brazen attack on our sovereignty does not come in a vacuum,” Danon continued. “We have cautioned repeatedly of Iran’s alarming entrenchment in Syria and this act of aggression is regrettably a realization of these very warnings.”

“I call on the Security Council to immediately condemn this attack and demand that Iran remove its military presence from Syria that not only threatens Israel, but the stability of our entire region. The international community must not stand idly by while a tyrannical regime attacks a sovereign nation and continues to threaten the very existence of a member-state of the United Nations,” the ambassador added.

Incoming rocket sirens were activated at 12:10 in the morning in Israel’s northern Golan Heights communities of Majdal Shams, Neve Ativ, Nimrod, Masa’ade, Buqa’ata, Odem and El Rom.

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Israel and the Islamic Republic have traded blows over Syria since February, when an ‘attack’ drone equipped with explosives belonging to Iran was shot down, according to the IDF.

On April 9, an airstrike killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members at a Syrian base just outside of Homs.

Tehran blamed Israel and vowed unspecified retaliation, drawing Israeli counter-threats to broaden attacks on Iranian military assets in Syria.