An analyst with close ties to the Iranian defense ministry has said that Iranian, Syrian, and Hezbollah officials will meet shortly to discuss their combined response to recent attacks in Syria that have been attributed to Israel.

Amir Mousavi, director of the Center for Strategic and International Relations in Tehran and a former advisor to the Iranian Ministry of Defense, quoted (Arabic link) a knowledgeable source saying that the recent attacks were “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” He said Iran would respond to the attacks in Syria:

I have emphasized, again and again, in many media outlets, that the Iranian leadership will not remain silent about the Israeli terrorist entity attacks which aimed to help its stepdaughters – the terrorist groups in Syria.

The term “terrorist groups” refers to the rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Mousavi did not rule out the possibility that Iran’s Shiite militias will make the area between Damascus and the Golan Heights “an open military zone with the Zionist enemy.” In this case, he explained, the Syrian leadership will move from Damascus to Latakia and Tartus and manage the affairs of state from there. He threatened that Iran has “big surprises” that Israel has not anticipated.

Reuters, quoting the official Syrian news agency SANA, reported that Syrian defense minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij was meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Dehghan to discuss “strengthening coordination and cooperation between the two armies … especially in the face of terrorism and common challenges in the region.”

Arab media reported on at least two raids in Syria in the past week attributed to the Israeli air force that targeted arms shipments to the Iran-backed terror organization Hezbollah. On Sunday, the Israel Air Force spotted and struck a group of four infiltrators laying an explosive device on the Israel-Syria border. The four were killed by an Israeli air strike.

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