Source: ynet.co.il
On April 17, the Israeli news website ynet.co.il released an article claiming that Iranian forces operate from 3 airbases across Syria. According to the article, Iranian forces are deployed in the T4 airbase, the Deir Ezzor military airport and the al-Seen airbase.
The al-Seen airbase:
Source: ynet.co.il
An alleged iranian position at the Deir Ezzor military airport:
Source: ynet.co.il
The article also argued that Iran is preparing a military action against Israel in response to the April 7 Israeli strike on Iranian positions in the T4 airbase.
On April 16, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that Iran would punish Israel for its actions.
“Tel Aviv will be punished for its aggressive action,” Bahram Ghassemi, a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, told reporters. “The occupying Zionist regime will, sooner or later, receive an appropriate response to its actions.”
The diplomat described the strike as “unacceptable” adding that “the Syrian military can defend its territory and will do so.”
Later on the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel is now “more powerful” than ever in an obvious response to the Iranian statement.
“And we are as powerful as we’ve [ever] been before. We’re economically successful as we’ve never been before. And we take our economic power and our military might and we weld them together to have unprecedented diplomatic flourishing of Israel’s relations around the world,” he told the Keren Hayesod-UIA Annual World Conference in Jerusalem.
While it’s clear that Iranian forces have much more than 3 positions across Syria, ynet.co.il’s article may be described as an indirect threat to strike the 3 aforementioned airbases in case of the escalation between Iranian and Israeli forces over Syria.
