IDF soldiers patrolling along the northern border fence with Syria
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Showing posts with label syria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label syria. Show all posts
05 July 2011
02 May 2011
Like rats deserting a sinking ship...
Last year, Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed to store Hizballah's incoming Iran-made Fatah-110 surface missiles and its Syrian equivalent the M-600 and the mobile SA-8 (Gecko) anti-air battery which holds 18 warheads with a maximum range of 12 kilometers. Tehran paid for the upkeep of the Hizballah hardware on Syrian side of the border after Israel threatened to bomb these potential game-changers if they crossed over.But as is always the case with all military operations, logistics is a bitch:
Deployed at Hizballah bases in Lebanon, the Fatah-110 and M-600 would place almost every corner of Israel within range of bombardment, while the SA-8 would seriously restrict Israeli Air Force operations over southern Lebanon and Galilee.
However, as the uprising against Assad rolls ever closer to Damascus, Hizballah see a very real threat of it infecting the Syrian army and has decided that now might be its last chance to get hold of the core arsenal it has standing by for war with Israel before events get out of hand in Syria.
Hizballah and Iranian offices in Tehran are working on the best way to transport the missiles into Lebanon without exposing them to Israeli attack, DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report. Some of them calculate that Israel would not venture to strike them while still on Syrian soil because it would lay itself open to interfering, or even getting in the way of, the revolt against President Assad and playing into his hands.Yup, that's true: if Syria gets attacked by the Zionist regime, it could unite enough of his people and military behind him and focus on an external enemy. But Israel can make it look like a 'work accident', and his people and military may not believe his whiny finger pointing. Alternatively, Israel can send in the fast movers once the missiles cross the Lebanese border, and take them out then. In either case, this is shaping up to be a true intelligence battle.
28 April 2011
Syria The Humanitarian Nation
The Syrian regime has intensified its campaign against anti-government protesters; some 400 protesters have been killed so far and many hundreds have been wounded by live rounds the Syrian police and military use against the protesters; dozens of people suspected of harboring anti-regime sentiments have disappeared -- apparently abducted by secret service agents and sent to remote prison camps; the military has surrounded several cities in a move reminiscent of Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez, who, in February 1982, ordered the destruction of the city of Hama in a scorched-earth policy against the Muslim Brotherhood; the grim news from Syria notwithstanding, the UN is scheduled to vote on 20 May on Syria's membership in the UN Human Rights Council.
Syria’s admission as a member of the UNHRC is an embarrassment for the Obama administration. Under the Bush administration, the United States bolted out of the UNHRC because of that body’s obsession with criticizing Israel while ignoring flagrant human rights violations by other states. The Obama administration decided to re-join the body in the hope of making it into a true global human rights watch dog, but results so far have been disappointing.
Anne Bayefsky of Hudson Institute told Fox News that “Syria knows a good deal when it sees it and the like-minded countries in the Asian regional group that nominated Syria are just as enthusiastic about the UN’s idea of a ‘human rights’ body. So the question for the Obama administration is not how do we keep Syria out, but why is the United States in?”
According to Jacob Sullivan, director of policy planning at the State Department, there are no plans to withdraw the newly installed US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford or otherwise cut off contacts. He noted that the Syrian ambassador in Washington had been summoned to the State Department after the most recent attacks on civilians, and that Ford had held several conversations with top Syrian officials in recent days.Search DOUBLETAPPER for related posts
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