“Have full confidence the aggressor will be greatly surprised because it thought this war – this war of attrition Syria has been exposed to for years – had made it incapable of confronting attacks,” assistant foreign minister Ayman Sussan says at a Damascus press conference according to Reuters. “God willing they will see more surprises whenever they try to attack Syria,” he adds.

Earlier today, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman broke his silence on the weekend’s aerial clashes, saying Israel will “respond to any provocation” and will “not accept any limitations” from Russia on its goal of protecting Israeli citizens. “We will respond to any provocation and defend our crucial security interests,” he said at Kiryat Shmona city hall, during a tour of defense contractors in the area. “It is not the time to bark, it is the time to bite,” he said. “And we bite hard.”