BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatened Israel with renewed fighting in the Golan Heights and said Russia was committed to supplying him with advanced missiles, in an interview broadcast Thursday.
Washington warned that any such weapon deliveries from Moscow would only prolong the conflict between government forces and Assad's foes in Syria, where activists say more than 94,000 people have been killed since March 2011.
"There is clear popular pressure to open a new front of resistance in the Golan," Assad told Al-Manar television of his close ally, the Lebanon-based Shiite movement Hezbollah fighting alongside his forces.
"There are several factors, including repeated Israeli aggression," \ he said, referring to reported Israeli air strikes on Syria.
"We have informed all the parties who have contacted us that we will respond to any Israeli aggression next time."
There was no immediate comment on Assad's remarks from Israel, which seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The armistice line has remained calm ever since, despite some spillover from the Syrian conflict.
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