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WAR REPORT
'Very confident' Assad talks of new front with Israel
by Staff Writers
Beirut (AFP) May 31, 2013


Israel says wants to avoid escalation with Syria
Jerusalem (AFP) May 30, 2013 - Israel does not want to provoke a military "escalation" with Syria, but will not allow it to transfer strategic arms to groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.

The remarks by Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom came hours before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad implied in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar television that Russia had already sent Damascus the advanced S-300 air defence missiles. But Israeli defence sources denied Assad's apparent claim.

"There is no need to provoke an escalation, there is no need to heat up the border with Syria, that was not our objective and it will never be," Shalom told public radio.

Asked about Moscow's plans to supply S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, Shalom said they would only become a problem if they fell into the wrong hands.

"Syria has had strategic weapons for years, but the problem arises when these arms fall into other hands and could be used against us. In that case, we would have to act," he said.

On Thursday evening, Israeli television Channel 10 reported that "contrary to Assad's claims, Moscow has yet to begin delivering the advanced missile system to the Syrian president's forces."

Citing Israeli security sources, the report said that "it was unknown if Moscow has even decided to supply the (S-300) system to Damascus."

Moscow has defended its arms shipments to Damascus, describing them as a "stabilising factor" which could act as a deterrent against foreign intervention.

Shalom's remarks were made a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his cabinet to stay silent on the issue of Russian arms shipments to Syria in a bid to reduce tensions with Damascus and Moscow.

Earlier this week, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon warned that Israel would "known what do to" if Russia went ahead with the delivery of the S-300 anti-aircraft system.

His words appeared to be a veiled allusion to military action along the lines of several strikes carried out on Syrian soil earlier which targeted weapons from Iran destined for Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Israel's National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror recently met European Union ambassadors to explain clearly what Israel's red lines were in respect to the S-300 system, Haaretz newspaper said on Thursday.

Amidror said Israel would not stop the delivery of the system but would act "to prevent the S-300 from becoming operational" on Syrian soil, according to the report.

"We are not interested in intervening or influencing the situation inside Syria," he told them.

"We will only act when we need to protect our security and thus we will prevent in the future the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah."

After the end of an annual civil defence drill on Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel was surrounded by "tens of thousands of missiles and rockets that could hit our home front."

Netanyahu pointed to the eight-day confrontation between Israel and Hamas militants in November, during which rockets from Gaza hit near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for the first time, as "a small example of the substantial changes in modes of attack."

"We must prepare defensively and offensively for the new era of warfare," Netanyahu stressed. "The Israeli home front is more accessible to the enemy than it has been."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatened Israel with renewed fighting in the Golan Heights and said Russia was committed to supplying him with advanced missiles, in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Washington warned that any such weapon deliveries from Moscow would only prolong the conflict between government forces and Assad's foes in Syria, where activists say more than 94,000 people have been killed since March 2011.

"There is clear popular pressure to open a new front of resistance in the Golan," Assad told Al-Manar television of his close ally, the Lebanon-based Shiite movement Hezbollah fighting alongside his forces.

"There are several factors, including repeated Israeli aggression," he said, referring to reported Israeli air strikes on Syria.

"We have informed all the parties who have contacted us that we will respond to any Israeli aggression next time."

There was no immediate comment on Assad's remarks from Israel, which seized the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The armistice line has remained calm ever since, despite some spillover from the Syrian conflict.

Assad, whose forces are battling alongside Hezbollah fighters to recapture the key town of Qusayr near the border with Lebanon, said he was "very confident" of victory.

"There is a world war being waged against Syria and the policy of (anti-Israeli) resistance... (but) we are very confident of victory," he said.

Earlier, Syrian state television said the Arjun district in northern Qusayr, one of the few remaining rebel strongpoints, had been taken, leaving rebels there little chance to escape.

Assad, who belongs to the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, appeared to imply in the interview that Russia had already delivered some of the promised ground-to-air S-300 missile systems.

"All the agreements with Russia will be honoured and some already have been recently," he said.

Moscow, the Assad regime's most powerful ally, has yet to confirm if it has already sent S-300s to Syria, but it announced this week that it intends to honour its contract.

US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden declined to comment on Assad's suggestion that S-300s had been delivered.

But she said: "Our concerns about Russia's continued support for the Syrian regime through the provision of arms and access to Russian banks are well known."

"Providing additional weapons to Assad -- including air defence systems -- will only prolong the violence in Syria and incite regional destabilisation," she added.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the stalemate "the most pressing crisis in world affairs today."

Israeli Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom indicated that the Jewish state would only act to prevent the missiles being used against it.

"The problem arises when these arms fall into other hands and could be used against us. In that case, we would have to act," he said.

Israel has already launched several air raids inside Syria this year, reportedly targeting convoys transporting weapons to its arch-foe Hezbollah.

Russia has defended its arms shipments to Syria. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said the missiles are a "stabilising factor" that could deter foreign intervention.

On the diplomatic front, the United Nations said a preparatory meeting for a proposed international conference on the Syrian conflict would take place in Geneva next Wednesday, attended by Russian, US and UN officials.

Earlier, Syria's opposition National Coalition, meeting in Istanbul, said it would not take part in the peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2 "so long as the militias of Iran and Hezbollah keep up their invasion".

The Coalition has appealed for the rescue of a thousand citizens wounded in Qusayr, which Assad's forces have been trying to seize back in an all-out offensive since May 19.

"Qusayr has been under constant bombardment," said a Coalition statement.

The Coalition has also insisted that any negotiations with the regime must lead to Assad's resignation, a position Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised on Thursday as unrealistic.

"We are under the impression that the National Coalition and its regional sponsors are doing everything so as not to allow the start of the political process and achieve military intervention in Syria through any means possible," said Lavrov.

"These demands are impossible to fulfil," he added. "The only thing that unites them is a demand of Bashar al-Assad's immediate departure."

burs-jj/oh

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