Netanyahu to Iran: Get out of Syria fast, we won’t stop attacking

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the IDF will continue to attack Iranians in Syria. Earlier, an Israeli commander said it conducted attacks in the country on nearly a daily basis and supplied arms to Syrian rebels.

“I'm telling you, get out of there fast. We won’t stop attacking,” the prime minister said on Tuesday morning during a ceremony, in which he appointed Aviv Kochavi as the new chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Netanyahu also rejected statements by an Iranian official, who said Iran only sent military advisers to Syria and not regular fighting troops.

“They always lie. They are lying with that and they are lying when they say their attempt to launch a satellite into space failed,” he said.

The Israeli leader was referring to the remarks made on Monday by Iranian General Hassan Firoozabadi, who said its “military advisers” will say in Syria as long as required to defeat terrorists, and an announcement on Tuesday by Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, who said Tehran’s attempt to place a satellite into orbit had failed.

Israel is apparently drifting away from its usual policy of neither confirming nor denying military operations in Syrian territory. Last week, Gadi Eisenkot, Kochavi’s predecessor as chief of staff of the IDF, acknowledged that the Israeli military had been attacking targets in Syria on nearly a daily basis and engaged “thousands of targets” in the neighboring country. He also said that the Israeli government had been supplying arms and other support to rebel forces in Syria, confirming earlier media reports about the practice.

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