Speaking to a conference hosted by the Jewish News Syndicate, a pro-Israel news agency, Netanyahu claimed that arch-rival Iran wanted to save Assad after watching the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in neighbouring Lebanon suffer heavy losses in fighting with Israel.
“They had to rescue Assad,” Netanyahu said, claiming that Iran wanted to send “one or two airborne divisions” to help the Syrian leader.
“We stopped that. We sent some F-16s to some Iranian planes that were making some routes to Damascus,” he said. “They turned back.” He gave no further details.
In fighting last fall, Israel detonated hundreds of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, days before assassinating the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Netanyahu told the crowd that he pushed forward the pager attacks after Israel learned that Hezbollah had grown suspicious and sent some of the devices to Iran for testing.
“I said, ‘We’ll have to do it right away’,” he said.
Israel and a weakened Hezbollah reached a ceasefire in November, ending more than a year of fighting. Israeli forces remain in parts of southern Lebanon. (AP) SZM