Russia has called on Israel to stop carrying out “arbitrary’ air strikes on Syrian territory, days after the Israeli Air Force targeted what Israel claimed Iranian forces in the war-torn country.
“The practice of arbitrary strikes on the territory of a sovereign state — in this case, we are talking about Syria — should be ruled out,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Moscow on January 23.
The strikes have caused friction between Israel and Russia, which along with Iran has provided President Bashar al-Assad with crucial military support throughout the Syrian conflict.
Zakharova said such strikes added to tensions in the region, which she said was not in the long-term interests of any country there.
“We should never allow Syria, which has suffered years of armed conflict, to be turned into an arena where geopolitical scores are settled,” she also said.