JOHN YANG: Israel and Iran are staring each
other down tonight across the expanse of Syria.
Long-simmering hostility flared to life last
night, as the Israelis blasted Iranian fighters
in Syria with their largest airstrikes since
the 1973 war.
Israel say the Iranians started it with a
rocket barrage.
Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports
from Jerusalem.
JANE FERGUSON: The bright dots and streaks
in the sky, as shown in Syrian night-vision
and television video, tell the story of an
overnight Mideast confrontation.
The pictures purportedly show Israeli airstrikes
against Iranian military targets.
Damascus also claims they show Syrian air
defenses intercepting those Israeli missiles.
A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces
said today they struck dozens of Iranian targets,
not just around Damascus, but throughout the
southern part of Syria.
The Israeli military said the overnight operation
was a response to rockets that they say Iranian
forces fired first at Israeli military positions
in the Golan Heights.
The Israelis said most of the Iranian rockets
either missed their mark or were intercepted.
Israel's defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman,
lauded his country's operation and put Iran
on notice.
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, Israeli Defense Minister
(through translator): We, of course, struck
almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,
and they need to remember this arrogance of
theirs.
If we get rain, they will get a flood.
I hope that we ended this chapter and that
everyone understood.
JANE FERGUSON: In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran crossed
a red line, and he warned Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad as well.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister
(through translator): We are in a continuous
campaign, and our policy is clear: We will
not allow Iran to establish itself militarily
in Syria.
Yesterday, I delivered a clear message to
Assad: Our action is directed against Iranian
targets in Syria.
But if the Syrian army acts against us, we
will act against it.
Whoever attacks us, we will attack them seven-fold,
and whoever prepares to attack us, we will
act against them first.
JANE FERGUSON: A Syrian military spokesman,
however, disputed that Israel's offensive
was a success.
MAN (through translator): Syrian anti-aircraft
defenses earlier this morning destroyed the
largest part of a successive wave of Israeli
rockets fired at its army bases.
JANE FERGUSON: In Washington, a White House
statement left no doubt where the Trump administration
stands.
It condemned the Iranian rocket attack on
the Golan Heights as provocative, and supported
the Israeli attack as self-defense.
Iran had vowed to respond to earlier Israeli
military strikes on Syria, but it hadn't said
when it would do so.
Of course, what happened overnight came less
than two days after the U.S. announced it
was pulling out of Iran's nuclear agreement
with world powers, a step welcomed here in
Israel, amid hardening battle lines in the
region.
Other world powers spent today trying to lower
tensions.
French President Emmanuel Macron:
EMMANUEL MACRON, French President (through
translator): There is a risk of escalation
and growing tensions.
We must be very vigilant to avoid that.
JANE FERGUSON: That was also the line from
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
SERGEI LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister (through
translator): As for escalation between Israel
and Iran, we think it is a rather disturbing
trend.
We believe that all the problems should solved
through a dialogue.
And many times, in contacts with the leadership
of Iran and Israel, we emphasized the need
to avoid any actions which would be mutually,
so to say, provoking.
JANE FERGUSON: And there was even firmer language
from the United Nations, which called for
the two sides to stop.
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, Spokesman, Office of the
U.N. Secretary-General: The secretary-general
urges for an immediate halt to all hostile
acts and any provocative actions to avoid
a new conflagration in the region, already
embroiled in terrible conflicts, with immense
suffering for civilians.
JANE FERGUSON: In the Golan today, there was
little sign of conflict, but tensions remain
high.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jane Ferguson
in Jerusalem.
JOHN YANG: And we will have a discussion of
what the Israeli-Iranian clashes could mean
after the news summary.
