Russia tells Israel attacks on Damascus airport must cease: report

Attacks on and around Damascus airport will not be tolerated, Russian officials have told Israelis, according to a report published in London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.The Russians are currently looking at steps necessary to bring the Syrian capital's airport back to full operational capability, the paper said, quoting Russian 'technical sources'.

Israelis have conducted several operations around the Syrian transport hub. Last week, Israeli rockets hit airport warehouses that were reportedly housing Iranian weaponry, causing extensive damage.

“The [Israel Defense Forces] has on hundreds of occasions attacked targets of Iran and Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said on Sunday at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting, just two days after the IAF strike.However, this kind of operation, which has happened at regular intervals, has made airlines wary of reopening connections with the Syrian capital.

A return to normal civilian air operations is a prerequisite in pulling Syria out of its pariah status, and has become especially important following a thawing of relations between the Assad regime and regional powers.

Many regional observers now believe that Syria might be accepted back into the Arab League. Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir came to Syria in December 2018, on a visit that would require the tacit support of Saudi Arabia.At the end of the month, a commercial flight flew from Damascus to Tunis, the first time since 2011, in a sign that Syria might be invited to attend the Arab league summit in the Tunisian capital at the end of March.

Damascus International Airport (DAM), which is just 30 kilometers outside the Syrian capital, used to be the country's busiest airport, with more than 5.5 million customers going through its gates in 2010.However, most international airlines halted flights as the civil war worsened. Only a handful of flights take off and land on the Damascus runway today.Two Syrian companies, Cham and Syrian Air, use DAM as a base to fly as far as Moscow. Iranian company Mahan flies six times a week to and from Tehran.

ut last year, the Syrian government said more than 12 airlines had been in contact to start reopening links.None seemed to have succeeded, but Al-Quds Al-Arabi's sources said that Gulf airlines had now started technical surveys, the first phase in resuming traffic.However, despite assurances from Syria's transport ministry that the airport was operational, Israeli strikes make any civilian flight operations too risky.The Israeli government was as yet to comment on the report.