Iran Denies Its Syria Positions Hit by Israeli Strikes

A high-ranking Iranian official on Sunday denied Iranian positions had been hit by Israeli air strikes near the Syrian capital overnight.

"This is a lie and it is not true," Mohsen Rezaie, the secretary of the Expediency Council, told ILNA news agency in response to Israeli claims its air force struck Iranian positions in the war-torn country.

"Israel and America do not have the power to attack various centers of Iran, while the advisory centers that we have, have not been harmed," said Rezaie, a former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

"Actions taken jointly by Israel and America in Syria and Iraq are against international regulations and defenders of Syria and Iraq will soon respond to them."

Iran, along with Russia, has been a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country's devastating civil war that broke out in 2011.

It denies sending professional troops to fight in Syria, saying it has only provided military advisers and organized brigades made up of volunteers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.