Israeli official warns Iran against sending arms to Syria under guise of quake aid

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Illustrative: Workers unload aid from a plane sent by Iran, at the airport in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, early on February 8, 2023, following a deadly earthquake. (AFP)
Illustrative: Workers unload aid from a plane sent by Iran, at the airport in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, early on February 8, 2023, following a deadly earthquake. (AFP)

An unnamed Israeli military official tells the Saudi-owned Elaph news site that if Iran ships weapons to its regional proxies under the guise of humanitarian aid to Syria following the major earthquake, the IDF would not hesitate to strike.

The official tells the site that “there is information indicating that Iran will take advantage of the tragic situation in Syria” to ship weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups in Syria.

He says Israel will not accept this and it will result in a “firm military response from us without hesitation.”

Several strikes against Iranian weapon shipments disguised as seemingly harmless products have been attributed to Israel in recent years.

Israel has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade.

The IDF says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

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