Israel-Syria war rumors rise

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Jerusalem Newswire
Israel-Syria war rumors rise

By Stan Goodenough
Jul 06, 2007

The US state department’s Dennis Ross, who played point man in the Middle East for the Clinton administration, believes war could erupt between Israel and Syria this summer.

Ross, who now heads up the Jewish People Policy Planning Insitutue, told Ynetnews Friday “there is a risk of war” between the two countries.

His warning comes two days after Syria denounced a massive IDF exercise being carried out on the Golan Heights this week as not merely a training practice, but preparation for war.

An analyst speaking on Syrian radio said Israel was responsible for the instability in the Middle East and was “lying” about the exercise

The editor in chief of Syria’s official daily newspaper Al-Thawra wrote Wednesday Damascus was expecting an attack at any time, and warned that an Israeli strike would be a mistake.

A year after the IDF went to war against the Iranian- and Syrian-supported Lebanese Hizb’allah; tension is rising in Israel, fuelled by media speculation and conflicting intelligence assessments about preparations for and the imminence of another Arab-Israeli conflict.

On almost every day of the week, one or more of Israel’s news outlets carries a report or commentary on the likelihood of conflict erupting

While the chief of Israel’s military intelligence warned last month that five or six different triggers could ignite a war, the focus seems to be sharpening on Syria.

“Syria has rearmed Hizb’allah to the teeth,” Ross said, without America doing anything to punish the Assad regime. Defense officials have warned that Syria could direct Hizb’allah to draw Israel into war.

Meanwhile Iran is strengthening its partnership with Syria – Tehran’s chief regional ally – in an effort to prevent or counter an attack on the Iranian nuclear program.

The British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reported on June 25 that Tehran was establishing a missile defense shield for Syria and preparing to ship sophisticated military hardware, including “dozens of medium-range Shahab-3 and Russian-made Scud-C missiles, together with Scud-B missiles.”

Analysts said the planned arms shipment may complement a Syrian deal for advanced fighter jets from Russia.

Syria is known to be producing non-conventional warheads, including those containing VX gas, to deliver by SCUDs.

All Israel’s cities are within range of those missiles – which can cover the distance to them in mere minutes.

In the 2006 war, Hizb’allah’s infinitely inferior rocket arsenal almost paralyzed the Jewish state – something Syria noted well.
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