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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Syrian President Bashar Assad (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff August 12, 2007 |
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Amid growing concern of a war with Syria that would be at least partially funded by Iran, an Israeli official said that Syria is growing wear of Iran's tight grip. According to the government official, it is still possible to disrupt the alliance, which he described as a relationship of convenience.
The official told Haaretz that Syria has been careful not to become Iran's "client state," and retain some of its independence from Iranian policy makers.
However the official warned that the window of time is limited.
"The more the American threat against Syria grows, the more calls are heard for maqawamah - violent resistence to Israel," the official said. "Then the moment will come when Syria won't be able to extricate itself from the Iranian alliance, but we still have not reached that point. They are tightening their connections to Iran because that is the best thing they have at the moment."
The official noted some fundamental policy differences between Damascus and Teheran. He cited Syrian President Bashar Assad's air of restraint regarding the possibility of war with Israel compared to the bellicose calls for war by Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been calling for "defeats for the enemies of the region," and projecting a "hot summer."
In related news, the Iranian-funded terrorist group Hezbollah is reportedly buying land in southern Lebanon along the de facto demilitarized zone bordering Israel in order to rebuild its defenses.
The group is said to be purchasing land from Christians and other non-Shi'ites in the region north of the Litani River. Currently roughly 13,000 peacekeepers are stations on the river's south bank following last summer's war.
"Christians and Druze are selling land and moving out, while the Shi'ites are moving in. There is an extraordinary demo-graphic shift taking place," Edmund Rizk, a Christian MP for the area until 1992, was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying.
This could have serious implications for the region's delicate religious status quo, disrupting the balance of Christian, Muslim and Druze communities.
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