(Ha'aretz) Amir Oren - "If Syria doesn't behave according to our explicit expectations, we will attack it," the very senior American officer stated. Was he referring to the Syrian forces in Lebanon that were assisting Hizballah? "Not only there," the very senior figure asserted, "in Syria itself." A few days later, a colleague of his was asked whether, in the event of an American-Syrian clash, the administration would expect Israel to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. "No," the official said surprisingly. "On the contrary, we are taking into account that a confrontation between us and Syria over the attitude toward Hizballah will bring about shooting into Israel by Hizballah and a commensurate Israeli response." An American strike on Syria is still far off, and perhaps Bashar Assad will abandon his caprices, but the evaluation of Israeli military intelligence is that this will be exceedingly difficult for the Damascus regime to do.
2003-06-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive