The White House on Thursday blamed Iran for an exchange of rocket and missile strikes between Israel and the Islamic regime’s outposts in Syria.
Israeli missiles struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria after rockets hit 20 Israeli military positions in the occupied Golan Heights.
“The United States condemns the Iranian regime’s provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israel’s right to act in self-defense,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
The statement said the Iranian regime’s deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is “an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East.”
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions, and we call on the IRGC and its militant proxies, including Hizballah, to take no further provocative steps,” it said. “The United States also calls on all nations to make clear that the Iranian regime’s actions pose a severe threat to international peace and stability.”
The flare-up came came on the heels of President Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the U.S. was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and reposing economic sanctions on Tehran.
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Israel, which Iran has threatened to wipe off of the map, was one of the few countries that supported Mr. Trump’s move.
The Israeli military also accused the Revolutionary Guard’s Al Quds force of launching the rocket attacks. It was the first time Israel directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory.
Iran is a chief ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has troops deployed throughout Syria to aid the regime in the 7-year-old civil war.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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