Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Photo by EPA/BGNES
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has claimed that an Israeli air strike on a military research center near Damascus aimed at destabilizing his country.
"This aggression exposes the real role being undertaken by Israel in collaboration with hostile external powers and their tools on the Syrian land to destabilize Syria and weaken it," Assad declared on Sunday, as cited by SANA and RIA Novosti.
The Syrian government has said that Israeli jets bombed a defense research center near Damascus earlier this week.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared to acknowledge for the first time that Israel carried out the attack.