Israel threatens to hit Syria
From The Sunday Times and AFP
22jul02
Israel has threatened to attack military targets in Syria the next time Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in southern Lebanon, strikes its territory.
Israeli military sources said the toughening of the Government's stance followed the failure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to heed two separate Israeli warnings, sent through the US, to end his support for Hezbollah and militant Palestinian groups based in his country.
A third warning came last week from Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Mubarak, who is to see Mr Assad, 36, in a fortnight, is said to share Israel's feeling that the Syrian leader is playing with fire.
In preparation for a possible attack on Syria, an urgent secret call-up "decree eight" was issued earlier this month to a small number of specialised reservists in the Israeli air force, special forces and military intelligence.
Military sources said Israel had come close to launching an attack on Syria – the first since the 1973 war – in recent weeks. But following suicide bombings, Israel turned to reoccupation of the West Bank and was unwilling to conduct an operation on another front as well.
Major-General Amos Malka, the outgoing head of military intelligence, said Israel had been disappointed by the militant position adopted by Mr Assad, who was seen as keen to modernise his country when he came to power two years ago.
"Assad has not delivered the goods," Major-General Malka said. "I'm not sure he reads the geopolitical map correctly, and he's taking unnecessary risks. Sooner rather than later we'll be engaged in a conflict unless Syria changes its attitude."
Israeli plans call for a swift air attack to destroy a tank brigade in southern Syria that contains about 90 to 100 tanks.
This would be followed by an artillery assault and perhaps, according to unconfirmed reports, a few days' occupation with helicopter-borne special forces.
Supporters of the plan say putting pressure on Syria to curb Hezbollah is more effective than a direct attack on the organisation, which could respond by launching Katyusha rocket attacks on Israel. Given Israel's military supremacy, they expect Mr Assad to get the message.
Hezbollah, established in 1982 by Iran to fight against Israel, was traditionally financed and armed by Tehran. To the fury of Israel, however, Mr Assad recently ordered his officers to supply Hezbollah directly from Syria's arsenal – something his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for almost three decades, never did.
The news came as the driver of an Israeli passenger train was slightly injured yesterday in a bomb attack near Tel Aviv, and as Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he was satisfied with a meeting that renewed contact with the Palestinians, interrupted after two anti-Israeli attacks last week.
"The meeting touched on real problems, we managed to partly avoid polemics, and there will be other meetings of this type held in the week," Mr Peres said. He said the Israeli army had no intention of remaining in the sectors of the West Bank occupied on June 19 after suicide bombings and attacks on Israelis if the Palestinians take the security situation in hand and stop the terrorism.
Israel has since June 19 kept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under curfew and restricted movement, causing aid groups to warn of a looming humanitarian crisis in the territory.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the talks were "serious and practical" but added that nothing had been agreed, except to hold another session between the ministers this week.
"I'm not raising any expectations about the result. We discussed political, economic and security issues," he said, adding that the talks also touched on Israeli plans to deport the relatives of militants from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, a move that has raised strong condemnation at home and abroad.
The talks were the first since Mr Peres met newly appointed Palestinian ministers on July 8 and 9 for the first high-level contacts in four months.
He said the two sides discussed ways of unblocking Palestinian assets frozen by Israel since the resumption of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in September 2000. Israel is holding on to about $US430 million ($778 million) worth of taxes and customs duties from Palestinians for goods which passed through Israeli ports. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to release the money without guarantees that it will not be used to finance attacks on Israel.
Mr Erakat said Mr Peres had told him Israel was ready to unblock 10 per cent of the funds as a first step if it and the US were allowed to check on where the money went. "But we say it's all our money and Israel has no right to it," he said.
Israeli army radio said Mr Peres was also considering whether to allow up to 7000 Palestinians to resume work in Israel, although previous pledges to allow 5000 workers in had failed to materialise because of security fears.
theaustralian.news.com.au |
