Iran will bolster Syria's air-defense capabilities, Iranian Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri announced Wednesday. This information is reported by Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen and Iranian state media.
Bagheri made the statement during a visit to Syria, during which he and Syrian Defense Minister Ali Abdullah Ayyoub inked the defense deal.
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The agreement, which provides for increased defense cooperation between the two countries, is aimed at "reinvigorating" Damascus and Tehran's "determination to confront the pressure from the US," Bagheri said.
After getting involved in Syria's bloody civil war to prop ally President Bashar Assad, Iran sought to build up a foothold in the country. Israel has declared it will not abide Iranian military presence in Syria, it's neighbor to the north, stating that would be a "red line" it would not allow the Islamic republic to cross.
Over the past few years, foreign media reports have attributed hundreds of strikes on Iranian assets in Syria to Israel, which has even admitted to carrying out some of them. The IDF has repeatedly said it would not allow Iran to deliver "game-changing weapons" to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which borders both Israel and Syria.
The Shiite terrorist group is Iran's largest proxy in the Middle East.
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Syria's other key ally, Russia, has deployed several advanced S-400 air defense batteries in the war-torn country. It also provided the loyalists with a number of more obsolete S-300 batteries, which have reportedly have struggled to counter the Israeli jets.
The past week has seen Iran rocked by a series of mysterious blasts, in most cases explained by technical errors. However, Tehran has admitted that one of these incidents has resulted in "a major setback" for its Natanz nuclear enrichment plant. It has also warned its enemies that any attack on its facilities would meet a "forceful retaliation."
This article was originally published by i24NEWS
