Amman: Israel played down weekend air strikes reported to have killed dozens of Syrian soldiers close to Damascus, saying they were not aimed at influencing its neighbour's civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
Oil prices spiked above $105 a barrel, their highest in nearly a month, on Monday as the air strikes on Friday and Sunday prompted fears of a wider spillover of the two-year old conflict in Syria that could affect Middle East oil exports.
"There are no winds of war," Yair Golan, the general commanding Israeli forces on the Syrian and Lebanese fronts, told reporters while out jogging with troops.
"Do you see tension? There is no tension. Do I look tense to you?" he said, according to the Maariv NRG news website....
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06:10 AM, May 07, 2013
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made no mention at a public appearance on Sunday of Israeli air strikes on Syria in recent days but spoke pointedly about a commitment to keeping Israel secure. "(My father) taught me that the greatest responsibility we have is to ensure Israel's security and guarantee its future," he said, dedicating a highway interchange named after his late father, Benzion Netanyahu, a historian who died a...
07:09 AM, May 06, 2013
