Israel could respond to any Iranian attack on it from Syria by toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, an Israeli security cabinet minister said on Monday, hinting that Assad himself may be targeted for assassination.
Israel and Iran have exchanged threats over Syria since February, stirring concern that a major escalation could be looming ahead of the May 12 review decision by U.S. President Donald Trump on the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.
On April 9, an airstrike killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officers at a major Syrian air base. Iran blamed Israel and vowed unspecified retaliation, drawing Israeli counter-threats to broaden attacks on Iranian military assets in Syria.
Sharpening these warnings, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Monday that Assad may find himself in Israel's sights.
"If Assad allows Iran to turn Syria into a military vanguard against us, to attack us from Syrian territory, he should know that this would be the end of him, the end of his regime," Steinitz told the Ynet news site.
Asked if that meant Israel might assassinate Assad, Steinitz said: "His blood would be forfeit."
But Steinitz also appeared to suggest that his remarks did not reflect Israeli government policy, saying, "I'm not talking about any concrete proposal."
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office or from Israel's Defense Ministry.
Israeli media quoted Steinitz as saying explicitly that Israel would kill Assad, but the video of the interview did not include those words.
Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Russia have been reinforcing the Assad regime during the seven-year Syrian civil war. The Israelis worry that Iran's garrison will remain, linking with Hezbollah to form a broad Syrian-Lebanese front against them.
On Sunday, Israel's intelligence services warned that Iran is planning a missile attack on Israeli military bases from within Syria in retaliation for the strike on the T-4 Syrian air base on April 9.
Some analysts interpreted the information as a warning to Iran that its plans were known, lest it try to carry out the missile strike without explicitly claiming responsibility.
Tensions between Israel and Iran began to escalate on Feb. 10, when an Iranian drone was shot down over Israeli territory. Since then, Israel's security establishment has closely monitored Iran to see how it will respond.
The intelligence community believes that Iran was planning to fire missiles on Israeli military targets in the north and conceal its culpability behind Shiite proxy militias, namely Hezbollah, thereby evading a wider clash with Israel.
The retribution was planned by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Israeli intelligence officials believe. The Iranians could use the Syrian-manufactured M-302 missiles, which have a range of 136 miles, or their own Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles, with a range of 186 miles.
Defense officials said there are no directives for the Israeli public at this time and no reason to intervene in daily civilian life, but the IDF is on high alert.
