However, the current statement is part of a wider Iranian influence operation aimed at making it seem that Iran and groups like PIJ are on the side of the new Syrian government. Iran was an ally of the Assad regime and Iranian-backed groups have opposed the new government in Syria.

Israel's air force has struck near Syria's presidential palace hours after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.

Israel bombed an area near the presidential palace in Damascus early on Friday, in its clearest warning yet to Syria's new Islamist-led authorities of its readiness to ramp up military action in the name of the country's Druze minority.