Israel said to ask Iran to show restraint after Syria attack

Senior Iranian official says Tehran received message asking for a de-escalation of tensions along Lebanese border

Israel sent a direct message to the Iranian government asking it to exercise restraint following an alleged Israeli strike on Hezbollah operatives that killed a top Iranian general in the Syrian town of Quneitra last month, an Israeli newspaper reported Wednesday

The chairman of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy parliamentary committee, Ala al-Din Boroujerdi, confirmed that Tehran had received a message through an “official channel” saying that Israel did not want “this problem to continue and cause an escalation, and that Israel expected that the other side would behave similarly as well,” Haaretz reported.

“The Zionists already have experience in five wars, and I think that is enough for them,” Boroujerdi said, according to the report. “I do not think that the Zionist entity wants a comprehensive war because such a decision will cause a repeat of their previous defeats.”

According to Boroujerdi, Hezbollah’s attack on an IDF military convoy last week near Israel’s border with Lebanon that killed two soldiers was in retaliation for the Quneitra air strike, and had nothing to do with Iran.

He insisted that while there would come a time for an Iranian response to strikes on Hezbollah operatives by the “terrorist Zionist entity,” the time and place had yet to be determined.

“After the killing of the high-ranking officer in the Revolutionary Guard [killed in the Quneitra airstrike],” Boroujerdi said, “Iran’s account with Israel remains open, but this does not mean that Iran’s policy is to begin a war in the region.”

The Quneitra attack highlighted Iran’s increasing public involvement in Hezbollah’s activities, both in southern Lebanon and in Syria, where the Lebanese group is fighting in that country’s civil war to support the forces of the Assad regime.

A spokeswoman for Iran’s foreign ministry quickly denied that Tehran had received either an official or unofficial message from Jerusalem, the Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported.