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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad (file)
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| May 14, 2007 |
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According to the statements of Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, who spoke in a closed government meeting last week, reentering into peace negotiations with Syria could lead to war.
Dagan expressed that the current diplomatic situation with Syria lends a certain amount of stability, which negotiations could take away.
"If we enter negotiations with Assad and they fail, the danger of war will be greater than if there were no negotiations at all," warned Dagan.
Dagan also spoke on Hezbollah, saying "Anyone who thinks that our talking with Syria would sever them from Hezbollah is mistaken."
He added, however, "I do believe Syrian President Bashar Assad could agree to expel Hamas and Islamic Jihad from Damascus and stop supporting them."
According to Dagan, Syria is unlikely to launch war on Israel due to the considerable damage they will likely incur.
Dagan acknowledged that Syria's Scud missiles could potentially do significant harm to Israel, but said that Syria is aware that they would not deter Israel and cause it to surrender. The Mossad chief also said that he sees Syria's current military preparations as defensive only.
Dagan said that, despite his considerations, it was the job of intelligence to decide whether or not to resume peace talks.
"I'm not a politician," he said. "I'm an intelligence person, and it's not my job to say whether we need to negotiate with Syria; that is the job and the decision of the prime minister and the government. My job is to present assessments and risks."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz gave his remarks on the topic during an interview Sunday with Channel 10, "If I were the prime minister of Israel, and the Syrian president said, 'Come, let's meet tomorrow and start to talk,' I would not be afraid to meet the Syrian president and listen to him. But the question is not just the Golan Heights. We also need to ask where Syria will be on the fundamentalist axis, whether it will break with Iran, whether it will stop giving protection to Hamas and about the flow of arms to Hezbollah."
"It is impossible to ignore what is happening with the Syrian army, and we must study its preparations and arms buildup. On the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the voices of peace emanating from there. Therefore, we need to take a courageous step and examine these voices of peace, including via concealed channels involving contacts through third parties and other countries. We must work to prepare the infrastructure so that there can be agreements; the second thing is that we need to announce that we are not afraid to meet with Syria's president," he continued. |
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