Israel trying to 'force Iran's surrender', says Revolutionary Guard

Recent developments in the region - including US President Donald Trump's pull-out of the Iran nuclear deal and Israeli strikes on Iranian military sites in Syria - are designed to force Iran's surrender, a Revolutionary Guard commander claimed on Thursday.

Trump's withdrawal from the historic nuclear accord and the subsequent Israeli strikes in Syria were described as "excuse" to strike Iran, said Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC].

"Our enemies will not dare to choose the military option but they will choose economic sanctions," Salami said on Thursday. He also said that European efforts to revive the process were doomed to fail.

"The important thing is to revive the resistance amid this economic war."

He also slammed Europe's inability to free itself from "obedience and dependency of America".

The comments came just hours after Israel's army said it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire was exchanged between the two sides.

The US, Germany UK among others have accused Iran of "provocation".

Iranian missile attacks on Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights overnight.

It led to 28 Israeli aircraft launching strikes on Iranian targets across Syria.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

The official SANA news agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.

The bombardment began after Israel struck the "town of Baath" in Quneitra province, according to monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Other countries have disputed this claim.

"The Syrian air defences are confronting a new wave of Israeli aggression rockets and downing them one after the other," Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Israel blamed the rocket fire on Iran's al-Quds Force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in territory it controls.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

Trump's withdrawal from the agreement has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.