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Damascus: Syria lashed out at Israel again on Friday and threatened possible government action, a day after Damascus said its air defences opened fire on Israeli aircraft that dropped "munitions" inside the country.
It was still unclear what happened overnight on Thursday. Syria has stopped short of accusing Israel of purposely bombing its territory, and an Israeli spokesman has said he could not comment on military operations. But a Syrian government newspaper warned yesterday that the country "possesses the means to respond ... so that it will deter Israel against proceeding with such unpredictable adventures."
Analysts speculated such a foray could have been probing Syria's defences or monitoring long-range missile bases. The reported path also would have taken the jets near Iran, whose growing power and anti-Israel government worries leaders of the Jewish state.
Unacceptable
The Arab League said yesterday Israeli infiltrations of Syrian airspace were unacceptable and called into question Israel's commitment to achieving regional peace. "These unacceptable manoeuvres reveal negative Israeli intentions toward current discussions to achieve peace in the Middle East," an Arab League statement quoted Secretary-General Amr Mousa as saying.
"These violations add only tension to the region at a time when all parties should work on pacifying the situation, not making it worse," the Egyptian foreign ministry statement said.
Israel kept up a careful policy of ambiguous silence yesterday over accusations from Damascus.
Speculating in the dark, Israeli analysts are divided over whether the flight - still unconfirmed - was a tactic of intimidation or a reconnaissance mission - or whether silence would appease or escalate tensions.
Tzahi Hanegbi, who is close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and chairman of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee, went public yesterday to say that Israel "does not want to raise tension" and is not courting confrontation with Syria.
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