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Iran uses Syrian facilities for weapons production — Israel

Israel's defence minister said that Iran was also working on building missile and weapons industries in Lebanon and Yemen.

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Benny Gantz speaks at the announcement of former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot's election bid in Ramat Gan, Israel, Sunday, August 14, 2022.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has said that Iran has used more than 10 military facilities in Syria to produce advanced missiles and weapons for its proxies.

For several years, Israel has been mounting attacks on what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria.

There were no immediate comments from Iran and the Syrian regime on Monday, but Damascus has declined to comment on such accusations in the past and Tehran has denied it has been expanding production capabilities across the Middle East.

Speaking at a conference in New York, Gantz presented a map of what he said were military sites of the Centre D'Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques (CERS), a Syrian regime agency, involved in manufacturing missiles and weapons for Iran.

"Iran transformed CERS into production facilities for mid and long-range, precise missiles and weapons, provided to Hezbollah and Iranian proxies. In other words, it became yet another Iranian front – a factory for advanced, strategic weapons," Gantz said.

Targeting airports

Strikes attributed to Israel have recently intensified on Syrian airports to disrupt Tehran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah, regional diplomatic and intelligence sources have told Reuters news agency.

Israeli strikes have repeatedly targeted the Masyaf area, a zone in the western Hama district where Gantz said an underground weapons production facility threatens Israel and the region.

"Masyaf, specifically, is used to produce advanced missiles," he said.

Gantz added that Iran was also working on building missile and weapons industries in Lebanon and Yemen.

"If this trend will not be stopped, within a decade, there will be advanced Iranian industries across the region, producing weapons and spreading terror," he said.

SOURCE: Reuters