Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad speaks during a press briefing in Damascus, Syria, on Feb. 14, 2018. Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Wednesday that the Syrian forces will shoot down any hostile aircraft just as they did when downing the Israeli F-16 recently, according to state news agency SANA. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)
DAMASCUS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Wednesday that the Syrian forces will shoot down any hostile aircraft just as they did when downing the Israeli F-16 recently, according to state news agency SANA.
"The Syrian sky is not going to be permissible for the invaders," Mekdad said, just days after the Syrian air defenses downed an Israeli F-16 that was carrying out airstrikes against military positions in Syria.
Downing the Israeli war jet marked a precedent in the course of Syria's nearly seven-year-long war, as it was the first Israeli jet to be shot down since 1982 Lebanese war.
Mekdad stressed that "Syria has an air defense system capable of defending the country," adding that the air defenses had shot down several Israeli missiles that were fired before the downing of the Israeli F-16.
On a different note, Mekdad denied his country's possession of any chemical weapons, stressing that the Syrian chemical arsenal has for long been handed over by the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
He added that the surrendered chemical arsenal had been destroyed by Western countries.
His remarks about the chemical weapons come against the backdrop of recent U.S. and French threats that they would use military action against Syria if another chemical attack in Syria is proven and backed by evidence.
Observers and government officials regard the Western threats as a green light for rebels to stage a chemical attack to give a pretext to the West to attack Syria, following last year's incident when the rebels accused the Syrian army of using sarin agent in an attack in Idlib, drawing in a quick military response by the U.S. against Syria.
Mekdad also mentioned last year's U.S. strike against the Shairat air base in central Syria, when they accused the Syrian government of using sarin in an attack against the rebel-held Khan Sheikhun area in Idlib province.
"The speed by which the U.S. carried out its raid on the air base last year indicates that the Pentagon had known about the rebels plans to use chemical weapons," he said, repeating the Syrian government stance that the rebels staged the attack to frame the government forces and draw in military reprisal.
In another jab at Washington, Mekdad said that the U.S. wants to prolong the Syrian war, citing a recent information made public by the government that the U.S. has evacuated 1,000 militants with the Islamic State (IS) from Raqqa in northern Syria toward the southwestern countryside of Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria toward U.S. camps in that area.
He said the U.S. has committed a "war crime" when its warplanes struck positions of pro-government Syrian fighters in Deir al-Zour earlier this month.
Mekdad, meanwhile, stressed that the Syrian army can defeat terrorism in Syria entirely "when the U.S. support to the terrorists stops."
"The Syrian army and its allies are the ones who defeated the terrorism," he said.
Regarding the situation in the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria and the Turkish military campaign there, Mekdad stressed that Afrin is part of Syria, calling on the "people of the region from Arab and Kurds to confront" what he described as "the Turkish aggression."
