ISRAEL THREATENS DAMASCUS THEY WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF HEZBOLLAH RETALIATES
MAR 14 2008
DAMASCUS DESTRUCTION WE SEE OUR MAKER WITH OUR EYES WE HAVE RESPECT FOR THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL = ISAIAH 17:1-7
Israel recently conveyed a warning to Syria through a third
party that it would hold Damascus accountable if Lebanese Hezbollah launched
attacks on the Jewish state, Israeli and European sources said on Friday.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the warning stemmed
largely from Israeli concerns that Hezbollah would launch salvoes of
cross-border rockets to coincide with any major Israeli offensive in the
Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The sources said the message was conveyed in February through at least one
European intermediary following the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander
and before this month's five-day Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in which
more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed.
After the group's senior commander, Imad Moughniyah, was killed in a bombing
in Damascus, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel with
"open war".
Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran, accused Israel of being
behind the assassination, a charge Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office
denied in a rare public statement.
A European source familiar with the matter said the message conveyed to
Damascus said Syria could be targeted by Israel even if Hezbollah's attack
emanated from Lebanese soil.
An Israeli source with knowledge of government affairs said: "The message was
passed around late February, before the last round of fighting in Gaza."
"It has become clear to us Syria has to understand there is a price for its
use of proxy terrorism, especially as Damascus is itself a proxy -- the
long-arm of Iran," the source said.
Another senior Israeli government official with knowledge of defence affairs
declined comment on whether a message was sent to Damascus, but told Reuters:
"This is sound strategy. Syria has significantly deepened its involvement with
Hezbollah in southern Lebanon since the war."
Asked about the risk of an Israeli attack on Syria in response to a Hezbollah
attack, a British official said: "There is always a danger that a turn of
events here could prompt something on the northern border, which would be a
disaster."
"The death of Moughniyah, the threatened Hezbollah retaliation does leave a
spectre of a wider regional conflict," the official said, playing down the
chances of opening an Israeli-Syrian peace track under the circumstances.
"There's an interest on both sides but I think it's very difficult to move
forward on it," the official said, citing close ties between Syria and Iran.
"It's become far more difficult the idea of an Israeli-Syrian deal."
GAZA TENSIONS
Since the end of Israel's five-day Gaza offensive, Egypt has stepped up
efforts aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Israel and militants in the
coastal enclave. A lull in rocket fire lasted several days but tensions flared
up against after Israel killed several militants in the occupied West Bank.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006 after the guerrilla group
captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
During the fighting, the Israeli military failed to crush Hezbollah or stop
the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militant group from firing some 4,000 rockets
into northern Israel, attacks that forced a million residents into shelters.
Nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly
soldiers, died during the conflict.
After the war, Olmert sent messages to Syria, expressing interest in
restarting peace talks but stressing that Damascus must first signal a break
with Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Tensions flared between the neighbours when the Israeli air force carried out
a strike inside Syrian territory on Sept. 6. Some U.S. officials linked the
raid to suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Syria and North
Korea. Damascus and Pyongyang denied any nuclear ties.
Negotiations between Syria and Israel collapsed in 2000 without resolving the
fate of the Golan Heights, a plateau occupied by Israel in 1967 during the Six
Day War and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.
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