|
|
|
|
|
Israeli airstrike hit military site, Syria confirms Julian Borger Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, yesterday claimed the
target hit by an Israeli airstrike last month was a military building
under construction, but denied it had anything to do with a nuclear programme. "We found the building construction was related to the military
but it's not used," he said, according to a BBC transcript. "It's
under construction so there's no people in it, there's no army, there's
nothing in it and we do not know the reason, it wasn't clear." He said the targeted building site did not have "any protection, any air defence" and that after the attack "there's no radiations, no emergency plans". However, Mr Assad did not say what the building was intended for, nor was he directly asked.
He played down, but did not exclude, the possibility of a military response. "Retaliation doesn't mean missile for missile and bomb for bomb. We have our means to retaliate, maybe politically, maybe in other ways," he said. President Assad also said Syria would not attend a Middle East peace conference planned by the US next month, unless it explicitly dealt with the fate of territory captured by Israel from Syria in 1967.
|
||||
