Syrian President Bashar Assad should attack Israel, says an Iranian newspaper considered the mouthpiece of the Supreme Leader.

Iran is concerned that the fall of Assad’s regime will cost the Islamic Republic its closest ally and could ignite anti-Syrian elements in Lebanon, base of the Iranian-funded Hizbullah terrorist organization and political party.

The Kayhan newspaper, which operates directly under the supervision of the Islamic Supreme Leader of Iran, wrote last week that Assad has every reason to strike Israel because of Israel’s alleged responsibility for the bombing in Damascus, which killed several of Assad’s’ top military officers.

The suicide blast has been widely attributed to Al Qaeda or other terrorists, if not the Syrian rebels themselves, and no journalist has even implied that Israel was involved.

The newspaper’s call for war cannot be taken lightly. Kayhan “offers insight into the most extreme views of Iran’s leaders and into the mind-set and plans of those who are at the center of power,” according to New York Times correspondent Michael Slackman.

The daily charged that Israel’s military deployment along the Syrian border prior to the bombing was further evidence of its responsibility for it, even though the IDF has posted troops there ever since the Six-Day War in 1967.

Kayhan also accused Israel of begin behind last week’s suicide bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists, whom the newspaper referred to as Israeli “diplomats.” It said the bombing was intended to frame Iran as having been responsible.

RightSideNews reported that an editorial in the Iranian newspaper offered Assad two options – a limited war to “liberate part of the occupied Syrian territories” or a “comprehensive war of no set duration” against a supposed alliance headed by Israel.

The newspaper foresees “a joint war by Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and others against the Zionist regime.”

“It is patently clear that Israel is currently totally unprepared for military confrontation – on the contrary, the worst possible scenario for it right now would be a confrontation with Syria,” Kayhan wrote.

“Such a confrontation would turn the atmosphere in the region against the Zionist regime, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and against the entire American-Zionist front – thus unifying the resistance front and making it operational.”