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A training of the Golani brigade with collaboration of the Infantry, Armored, Engineering, and Artillery corps, and the Air force in the Golan Heights, July 4 2007. (Photo by IDF Spokesperson/Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 8, 2007 |
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| Recent IDF training in the Golan Heights (Photo by Abir Sultan/IDF Spokesperson/Flash90) |
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Israel is "concerned" that Syria's removal of military checkpoints on their side of the Golan Heights could be a sign that Damascus is preparing for war, the London based Al-Hayat reported Saturday.
The article reported that the checkpoints, which are on the road to Kuneitra, have been there since the Six Day War.
According to the report, the IDF would not allow journalists access to military maneuvers in the Golan Heights, an that the IDF had placed there bulldozers and 70 tank outposts.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni referred to the Syrian issue last week in a meeting with the Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller.
"Israel, unfortunately, has to be constantly prepared. The IDF's job is to protect Israeli citizens, and for this it must train, and for this exercises were created. It would be a shame... to interpret this otherwise," Livni said, assuring that Israel wanted peace.
Syria's connections to Hezbollah and Iran remain obstacles for Israel in the peace process between the two countries.
Farid Ghadri, president of the Reform Part of Syria, based in Washington DC, called on Israel not to make a peace agreement with a totalitarian Syrian regime, calling such a move a "betrayal of the Syrian people." He was speaking in an address to the FADC.
According to the Jerusalem Post, "The Syrian regime contradicted... itself by alternating statements of a will to negotiate peace and threats to take back the Golan by Mukawama - resistance in Arabic - a phrase that can mean anything from a limited terror campaign to all-out war. Threats of Mukawama by the Syrian foreign ministry and other top Syrian officials sometimes arrived within days from declarations that Syria seeks nothing but peace."
Meanwhile, 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 Institute, 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 that 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 Hezbollah; tension is rising in Israel, fuelled by media speculation and conflicting intelligence assessments about preparations for and the imminence of another Arab-Israeli conflict.
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 Hezbollah to the teeth," Ross said, without America doing anything to punish the Assad regime. Defense officials have warned that Syria could direct Hezbollah 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 reach them in mere minutes.
Syria has noted the effect on Israel of Hezbollah's infinitely inferior rocket during the Second Lebanon War.
Stan Goodenough of Jerusalem Newswire contributed to this report. |
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