Report: Assad Has Been Barring Iran from Retaliating to Israeli Raids on Syria for 3 Years

This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Report: Assad Has Been Barring Iran from Retaliating to Israeli Raids on Syria for 3 Years

This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo released by Planet Labs PBC shows the damage after an Israeli strike targeted the Aleppo International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been barring Iran for three years now from retaliating to Israeli raids on Syria to avert an escalation, reported Israel’s Haaretz.

Assad reportedly made the order directly to Iran’s slain Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and it has largely held.

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria to prevent Iran’s entrenchment there. Tehran has not retaliated, both directly or indirectly, through its armed factions in the unoccupied parts of the Golan Heights.

The New York Times had last week confirmed that Assad has been barring Iran from responding to Israeli attacks.

Haaretz elaborated, saying the Syrians do not want an attack against Israel to be launched from its territories because they fear the eruption of a widescale war that would further weaken a country that is already suffering from years of conflict.

Iranian militias have consequently opted to target American bases in Syria with the hope that that would prompt Washington to pressure Israel to stop its raids.

After Soleiman’s killing, Assad issued the same instruction to his successor Esmail Qaani, said Haaretz.

The report was released two days after a purported Israeli strike on Aleppo airport in northern Syria.

The attack Wednesday night on Aleppo International Airport came as an Israeli strike only months earlier took out the runway at the country's main airport in the capital, Damascus, over Iranian weapons transfers to the country.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad said Thursday Israel was “playing with fire” and risking igniting a widescale military conflict.

Israel does not usually comment on its strikes on Syria, but it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of attacks on Iran-backed groups there. It has also struck arms shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon.



Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
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Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa speaks during a press conference at the Latin Catholic patriarchate at the Old City of Jerusalem, 22 April 2025. (EPA)

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis's support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The Catholic church's highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that "Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate".

Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and "closeness to the poor... and to the neglected one", said the patriarch.

These positions became particularly evident in Francis's response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023, Pizzaballa said.

"He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of Gaza, he kept calling them many times -- for a certain period, also every day, every evening at 7 pm," said the patriarch.

He added that by doing so, the pope "became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he knew this".

Out of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the "deplorable humanitarian situation" in the besieged territory.

"Work for justice... but without becoming part of the conflict," said Pizzaballa of the late pontiff's actions.

"For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy."

The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any official message from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even as "the local authorities... were not always happy" with the pope's positions or statements, they were "always very respectful", he said.

Pizzaballa said he will travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the morning.

As one of the 135 cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect a new pope.

Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September 2023, just before the Gaza war began.

His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace since then have attracted international attention.