China’s outgoing ambassador to Syria, Feng Biao, held what appeared to be a rather friendly meeting with President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday providing yet another indication of the increasingly close ties between the two countries — a trend that’s making observers across the border in Israel increasingly anxious.

“Any type of relations between a world power like China and a country that is one of Israel’s enemies is worrying,” said Danny Yatom, a former head of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency told the security news site Breaking Defense. “The Chinese without any doubt will perform big programs in Syria, and Israel should make sure that this fact will not limit its freedom of action in Syria. Israel will not take any chance of hitting by mistake Chinese people that will be working in Syria as part of the reconstruction work.”