Ensuring national security, increasing influence among its Arab neighbours and securing the return of the Golan Heights, have been the primary goals of the Syrian Arab Republic's foreign policy. At many points in its history, Syria has seen tension with its neighbours, such as Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Syria enjoyed an improvement in relations with several of the states in its region in the 21st century, prior to the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War.
The State of Israel is represented in the Russian Federation through an embassy in Moscow and a consulate-general in Yekaterinburg. Russia is represented in Israel through an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Haifa. Russia is a member of the Quartet on the Middle East. For many years, Israel was a haven for Russian Jews. This was especially the case during the aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1990s. Israel and the Soviet Union, Russia's predecessor state, were on opposing sides during the Cold War. However, the relationship between Israel and Russia has improved significantly since the early 2000s, with the election of the more pro-Israel Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the election of the more pro-Russia Israeli leader Ariel Sharon. Putin has had a close relationship with long-serving Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel–Ukraine relations are foreign relations between Israel and Ukraine. Both countries recognized each other on 11 May 1949 as the Ukrainian SSR and established de jure diplomatic relations on 26 December 1991 when Ukraine became independent. Israel has an embassy in Kyiv. Ukraine has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate-general in Haifa. There are 30,000 Ukrainians settled in Israel, while Ukraine has one of Europe's largest Jewish communities. Ukraine is also the first state, apart from Israel, to have had both a Jewish president and prime minister simultaneously.
International reactions to the Syrian civil war ranged from support for the government to calls for the government to dissolve. The Arab League, United Nations and Western governments in 2011 quickly condemned the Syrian government's response to the protests which later evolved into the Syrian civil war as overly heavy-handed and violent. Many Middle Eastern governments initially expressed support for the government and its "security measures", but as the death toll mounted, especially in Hama, they switched to a more balanced approach, criticizing violence from both government and protesters. Russia and China vetoed two attempts at United Nations Security Council sanctions against the Syrian government.
Following the 2012 diplomatic missions attacks that began on September 11, 2012, many nations and public officials released statements. Widespread early news coverage said that the protests were a spontaneous response to an online preview of Innocence of Muslims, a movie considered offensive to Muslims. Later consideration of the Libya attack's complexity, of statements made by some Libyan officials, and of the potentially symbolic date fueled speculation of preplanned efforts. U.S. missions in Cairo, Egypt, and Benghazi, Libya, were attacked during the first day of the protest.
The 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran was a mob action on 2 January 2016 by protesters against the execution of a prominent Saudi Arabian Shi'a cleric. Mobs stormed the embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad and ransacked them. The embassy building was set on fire with Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. During the attacks, the police arrived and dispersed protesters from the embassy premises and extinguished the fire.
Mohammad Reza Zahedi was an Iranian military officer. A senior figure within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he had previously commanded the IRGC Aerospace Force and the IRGC Ground Forces, and was commanding the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria at the time of his death.
On 22 July 2022, Israel attacked military positions near Damascus, Syria, killing three Syrian soldiers and wounding seven others.
On 18 February, an airstrike, suspected to have been carried out by the Israeli Air Force, targeted sites in the Damascus Governorate, including a residential building. Fifteen people were killed, and another fifteen were injured.
On 1 April 2024, Israel conducted an airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, Syria, destroying the building housing its consular section. Sixteen people were killed in the strike, including eight officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two Syrian civilians. The airstrike took place during a period of heightened tension between Israel and Iran, and amidst the Israel–Hamas war and the Israel–Hezbollah conflict.
On 13 April 2024, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the Ansar Allah (Houthis), launched retaliatory attacks against Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with loitering munitions, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. The attack was codenamed by Iran as Operation True Promise. Iran said it was retaliation for the Israeli bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on 1 April, which killed two Iranian generals. The strike was seen as a spillover of the Israel–Hamas war and marked Iran's first direct attack on Israel since the start of their proxy conflict.
Iran: Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, vowed a harsh response to the attack. Khamenei's political advisor Ali Shamkhani, said that the United States "remains directly responsible whether or not it was aware of the intention to carry out this attack". [1] Iran also sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council, saying it "reserves its legitimate and inherent right to respond decisively". [2] 
Israel: Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, told reporters: "According to our intelligence, this is neither a consulate nor an embassy." He further added that the target struck was a "military building of Quds forces disguised as a civilian structure in Damascus". [3] Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Defense, said that "Israel is working to make it clear to everyone who acts against us, all over the Middle East, that the price for acting against Israel will be a heavy price." [4] Israel told the U.S. that if Iran were to launch an attack from its territory against Israel in retaliation, it would prompt a robust response from Israel, potentially escalating the current conflict to a higher intensity. [5] [6] 
Syria: Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad condemned the airstrike, calling it a "terrorist attack" which had killed "innocents". [8] 
