Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square


Wednesday, October 08, 2003 Syria to Israel: We Will Respond With Force Next Time Syrian Ambassador to Spain issued a forceful warning to Israel stating that if the IDF attacked Syrian territory again, the response would be with weapons - not words: "If Israel attacks Syria one, two and three times, of course the people of Syria and the government of Syria and the army will react to defend ourselves," Syrian Ambassador Mohsen Bilal told Reuters in Madrid. Asked if that meant responding militarily, he said: "By all means. If Israel continues to attack us and continues its aggression of course we shall react to the attacks in spite of the fact that we are fighting for peace and wish to reopen the (1991) Madrid (peace) conference." Israel did not immediately respond formally to the envoy's remarks. But the senior Israeli security source said: "This sort of statement is intended mainly for the Arab world, to give the impression Syria is steadfast in the fight against Israel. "Israel does not seek an escalation with Syria, and indeed has taken precautions to prevent that. We will act in self-defense if necessary, but not if Damascus receives our message that it must stop supporting terror," the source said. Must be nice to be able to define all your offensive military actions as "self-defense." I like the statement "Israel does not seek an escalation with Syria," because it sounds like the Israelis are counting on the fact that Syria would not respond militarily without the backing of Egypt and Jordan, and therefore would not risk a one-sided confrontation. Alternatively, the IDF doesn't want war with Syria because at this point it would be a bit too much to chew (especially along the Lebanese-Israeli border where Hezbollah still remains active). Interesting chess game, although diplomatically it looks as if the Syrians have the upper hand. Keep your eye on this folks. . . posted by Shaun Kenney \| 10/08/2003 09:49:00 AM \| 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment Home
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