Israel blocks Iranian plane flying over Syria, claims Tehran was sending weapons to Hezbollah

As the tensions in West Asia continue to escalate, Israel’s fighter jets blocked an Iranian plane, accusing it of ferrying arms to Lebanon’s Hezbollah from Syria. According to The Times of Israel, the Iranian aircraft was blocked between Saturday and Sunday afternoon. As per the report, fighter jets from the Israeli Air Force intercepted the Iranian plane over Syria and ordered it to turn around.

The interception of the flight came as a part of Israel’s efforts to prevent Iranian weapons from reaching the Lebanese terror group as the Jewish nation is currently under a ceasefire with the Lebanese group. In the span of just a few months, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has forced several Iranian flights to make U-turns over Syrian and Iraqi airspace, The Times of Israel reported.

Israel keeps a close eye on Syria amid ceasefire with Lebanon

The IDF maintained that during the truce between Israel and Lebanon, its forces will do everything to block the deliveries of weapons to Hezbollah. This includes striking shipments anywhere in Lebanon or Syria.

Last week, a senior Israeli military official said that the IDF would not just strike the weapon shipments, but Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime would pay for aiding Hezbollah. In hours before the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire deal came into effect, IDF carried out strikes against Hezbollah’s smuggling routes.

Not only this, Israel destroyed three border crossings between northern Lebanon and Syria. Following the incident, the Jewish nation claimed that Hezbollah was smuggling weapons from the region. The IDF assessed that it would take time to repair the crossings, and during that time, Hezbollah would have limited routes to bring in weapons, which would be easier for Israel to monitor, The Times of Israel reported.

While the ceasefire was in place, on Saturday, IAF fighter jets struck multiple infrastructures in Syria that are closer to the Lebanon border. IDF claimed that these infrastructures were being “actively” used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons. However, reports of Israeli strikes on Hezbollah weapons shipments began to emerge in early 2013. While Israel kept mum over the matter at that time, they have been extremely vocal about their operations in recent years.

Source » firstpost