Iran has denied involvement in rocket attacks on the Golan Heights that preceded Israeli strikes on Iranian sites in Syria. The UN has called for an end to "hostile acts" as fears of escalation continue.
Image: picture-alliance/Xinhua News Agency
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On Friday, Iran rejected accusations that it had fired rockets at Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, describing the charges as "freely invented and baseless" and designed to justify Israel's own attacks on Syria.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi also criticized the international community for not condemning Thursday's airstrikes, which Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a retaliation against Iran.
The silence of other nations "only gives the Zionist regime (Israel) the green light for further aggressions that serve only to make the region more insecure and unstable," he said.
A parliamentary defense committee in Tehran also reported that Iranian forces had nothing to do with the attacks on Israeli positions.
"This is another lie from the Zionist regime for propaganda purposes," committee spokesman Mohammad Nobandegani said. He also denied that Iran had military forces in Syria at all.
Israel announced early on Thursday that its forces had hit "almost all" Iranian infrastructure sites in Syria during airstrikes carried out in retaliation for Iran's firing of 20 rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Netanyahu said that Iran had "crossed a red line" with the rocket attacks.
The attacks were some of the worst direct violence between Israel and Iran in years and have raised fears of a wider conflict in the region. Israel has long expressed concern that Iran could establish a military presence in Syria amid the instability caused by Syria's long-running civil war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed fears of further escalation in a tweet in which he called for an end to "all hostile acts and any provocative actions."
The secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters that Guterres had been in contact "with various people at various levels" about the attacks.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Pitarakis
The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Brandon
The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
Image: Getty Images/A. Sik
The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
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'Right to self-defense'
Germany's Foreign Ministry has sided with Israel. In a tweet, it said the rocket attacks were "a serious provocation that we condemn in the harshest way possible. Israel has, as we have stated several times, a right to self-defense."
After speaking on the phone on Friday, US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May also condemned the rocket attacks. A White House statement said the two leaders also "discussed how to best address Iran's destabilizing behavior."
Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, has called on the Security Council and Guterres to condemn Iran and call on the country to remove its forces from Syria.
In light of the divisions within the Security Council over Syria, it seems unlikely that the body will issue any statement on the matter.
