Middle East flashpoints: Israeli bus bombing, Syria

>>> two flash points out of the middle east today. iran has denied accusations by benjamin netanyahu that he is b hezbollah was behind the bombing on tuesday. and in syria , at least 250 people were killed today. the most in one day since the violence began as rebels have taken over the first border since the conflict began. there are conflicting reports as to the location of assad a day after a surprise bombing killed the former defense minister and ass assad 's brother-in-law. a sanction failed on vetoes by china and russia. jay carney said those who vetoed the measure on are on wrong side of history. for more, we go to a professor at the london school of exhibition and a middle east expert. good day, sir.

>> hello, jonathan .

>> hi. let's start with the bus bombing. israelis believe hezbollah is behind the bus attack. how confident can we be with their intelligence?

>> not very confident, jonathan . there is uncertainty about the identity of the perpetrator. some say he was captured by american forces in afghanistan and incarcerated for a few years. if the reports are corrects, this changes the dynamics of the accusations against iran and hezbollah . all i am suggesting at this stage, it's very dangerous to make any definite assigning blame and then take actions based on these claims. but the reality as you know, jonathan , israel and iran had been engaged in a covert war of attacks and iran accuses israel of killing at least five of its nuclear scientists and israel accuses iran of trying to plan a nuclear bomb and planning acts against its own citizens and officials, so there's a real dilemma and major struggle taking place.

>> what are israel 's options at this point if they wanted to retaliate?

>> well, jonathan , israel 's heed leaders have made it very clear they will choose the time and matter of retaliation. they have also made it clear they will basically not carry out military strikes. they will probably take covert acts against the perpetrators. either the alleged perpetrators. iran or hezbollah . my fear is that any direct retaliation could really serve as a spark to ignite a big, regional fire in the middle east as you just suggested. the time at least now is internal as you know.

>> now, let's move on to syria . fighting is ongoing in damascus . assad may or may not be there. how close are we to his fall?

>> i think this is a huge, huge question, jonathan . i think it's too early to write the obituary of assad . it's too early to write the assad regime off. it has capabilities so far. look what's happening in damascus . i think the syrian government is throwing everything at the disposal. tanks, helicopters. special forces . it's doubling its efforts to prove it's in control and when the dust settles on damascus , you're probably going to see thousands, not just hundreds, of casualties because the assad government is injured and it's doing its best to show that it still has the power to maun tan control in the damascus , which is the capital of syria .

>> thank you very much.