MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. The Israeli Air Force’s missile attack on Syria’s T-4 air base should be considered as a provocation, Head of the Russian Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Viktor Bondarev said on Monday.
"The shelling by the Israeli Air Force of the T-4 air base should be considered as an obvious provocation orchestrated by quite a different country interested in the continuation of the war in Syria," the senior Russian senator told TASS.
"What is indicative is how quickly Israel responded, assuming responsibility for the attack in Homs when the Syrian news agency SANA published information on the Pentagon’s possible complicity in it," Bondarev said.
As the senior Russian senator stressed, terrorists took advantage of the situation with the shelling.
"If the events develop further like this, the consequences may be the toughest and unexpected. Moreover, this will have the most serious implications for all those who are building up tension in the Middle East," Bondarev said.
The continuation of hostilities is impeding stabilization of the situation in the country which is being bombed and is also exhausting the army of the side attacking Syria, he added.
"This should be remembered by those who, being submissive to overseas puppet masters, are obediently shelling Arab provinces," the head of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee said.
The participants in the upcoming session of the UN Security Council should focus on elaborating measures aimed at the peaceful settlement of the situation in Syria because the sole correct way involves negotiations and the ceasefire," the senior Russian senator said.
"We, of course, will continue supporting the peace process, rendering assistance to the Syrian people and the legitimate Syrian government and countering the attempts of pseudo-fighters with terrorists from the pro-American coalition to destroy Syria like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were earlier destroyed," the parliamentarian said.
Missile strike
A massive missile strike was delivered on the T-4 airfield in the Syrian province of Homs early on Monday morning. As the news agency SANA reported, citing a military source, there are dead and wounded persons among the Syrian servicemen. Syria blamed Israel for the missile attack on the airfield.
According to a SANA source in the Syrian command, F-15 fighter jets of the Israeli Air Force fired several missiles from the Lebanon airspace against the target.
As Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Monday, eight missiles were fired against the Syrian T-4 aerodrome. The Syrian air defense troops destroyed five of them. No Russian military advisers were hurt in the missile attack.
Israel’s Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Monday he would not comment on the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement that two Israeli F-15 fighters had delivered a strike with eight missiles against the Syrian T-4 aerodrome.