Israeli missiles have targeted Syria’s air defence positions, according to state media. 

The defence systems were located in the south of Syria, the reports said. 

Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military source as providing the information. 

MEZIESBLOG has not been able to verify the claims..

Both sides ‘testing the waters’ and seeing ‘how far they can go’, says expert

Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow from the Centre for International Policy has commented over the escalating situation in the Middle East. 

Talking about this morning’s apparent Israeli attack on Iran, she said the “red lines have been blurred” in the last few months, and both sides are seeing how far they can go. 

“What each side is doing is sort of testing the waters, testing the other side in a calculated way, but escalating in a way to see how far they can go,” she explained. 

While the US assisted Israel in its defence against Iran’s missile and drone strike at the weekend, it has said it will not participate in any retaliation, Ms Mortazavi added. 

She said this was a “little more careful” approach, and shows the US is trying to handle “backchannel talks” between Iran and Israel.  

“There’s a lot of back channel diplomacy back and forth happening to try to minimise the damage to these retaliatory attacks,” she added. 

“But at the same time, both sides, Iranians and Israelis, are also doing this to save face for a more radical or more hardline constituency in each of their home countries.”