Washington has declared its full support for any Israeli military escalation against Syria describing Israel (an occupying power) as a country that has the right to defend itself.
A statement from the White House press secretary on Sunday said that “Israel is a staunch ally of the United States and we support its right to defend itself from the Iranian-backed Syrian and militia forces in southern Syria.”
A similar position was also voiced on Saturday by state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert who also said that “Iran’s calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project its power and dominance place all the people of the region from Yemen to Lebanon at risk.”
“The US continues to push back on the totality of Iran’s malign activities in the region and calls for an end to Iranian behavior that threatens peace and stability” she added.
The US department of defense (the Pentagon) also claimed yesterday that Israel was entitled to protect itself against acts of aggression.
“Israel is our closest security partner in the region and we fully support Israel’s inherent right to defend itself against threats to its territory and its people” Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine said.
Such remarks follow Israel’s aerial bombing of several targets in Syria on Saturday which was claimed to be in response to anti-aircraft fire that downed one of its warplanes as it was returning from an attack on alleged Iranian-backed positions in Syria.
Earlier Israel justified its raids on those positions in Syria by saying they were carried out after an Iranian drone had entered its (occupied) territory late Friday and later was shot down by its air forces.
