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Netanyahu sent messages to Iran saying Israel didn’t want to target IRGC advisors in Syria: Expert

The coffin of Milad Heidari, one of the two military advisors of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who were martyred in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital city of Damascus last month, is seen during a mass funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, on April 4, 2023. (Photo by Tasnim news agency)

A senior Iranian expert on regional issues says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent multiple indirect messages to Iran saying the regime’s military did not want to assassinate the two military advisers of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who were killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital Damascus last month.

“Netanyahu has sent messages through Jordanians, Egyptians, Qataris and the French that Israel had no intention whatsoever to strike the positions of Iran [inside Syria],” Sadullah Zarei said in an exclusive interview with state-run IRIB Ofogh television network broadcast on Saturday evening.

He added that the Israeli prime minister has even stated that the Tel Aviv regime “had planned to carry out a regular airstrike against a certain area [in Syria], and had earlier checked up that no Iranian military personnel was stationed in close proximity.”

Zarei noted that Netanyahu has also underscored that “Israel did not want to kill the IRGC military advisors on purpose, and it was rather an accident.”

The expert also said that Palestinian and Lebanese resistance forces have inflicted hefty losses on Israeli military forces and extremist Jewish settlers over the past few days, killing and injuring a large number of them in retaliatory attacks.

Zarei said fighters from the Axis of Resistance have fired barrages of rockets into Israeli-occupied lands in response to the martyrdom of Iranian advisors, violent raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Palestinian worshipers observing the holy fasting month of Ramadan, as well as the bombardment of several sites in Syria, the Gaza Strip, and southern Lebanon.

IRGC military advisors Milad Heidari and Meqdad Mehqani were martyred on March 31 aerial assaults conducted by Israel on the suburbs of Damascus.

Heidari, a 32-year-old father of two, was from Kurdistan Province. He was living in Tehran’s Qarchak county. Mehqani, 31, later died of the wounds he sustained during the Israeli attack. He was from Golestan Province and had a two-year-old son.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in the Arab country, helping it in the face of foreign-backed terrorism. Back in 2017, the advisory assistance helped Syria vanquish the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh.

Known as one of the main supporters of terrorist groups that have battled the government of President Bashar al-Assad since foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria in early 2011, the Israeli regime frequently violates Syrian sovereignty and conducts attacks in the Arab country.

The targets usually include residential buildings. Military positions especially those of the Hezbollah resistance movement, which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists, are also frequently hit by Israeli strikes.

Israel largely remains silent about the attacks. Damascus has repeatedly complained to the UN over Israeli assaults, urging the Security Council to take action against Tel Aviv’s crimes. The calls have, however, fallen on deaf ears.


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