Report: Olmert will cede Golan for peace

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JERUSALEM - Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime, a newspaper reported Friday.

Yediot Ahronot said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad through German and Turkish diplomats saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and to give up the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The paper said Syria had not responded to the overture, quoting unidentified officials close to Olmert.

Olmert's office would not comment on the report. But an Israeli official said earlier in the week that Israel had been taking soundings on Syria's intentions through an undisclosed third party. That official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name.

Israel and Syria have held several rounds of peace talks in the past. The last attempt broke down in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, which Syrian artillery shelled Israelis before the 1967 war.

Assad has recently urged Israel to return to the negotiating table, but has not publicly addressed Israel's demand that Damascus scale back its ties with Iran, its main ally in the region, and stop backing Lebanese and Palestinian groups committed to Israel's destruction.

Yediot said President Bush gave Olmert the green light for negotiations with Syria in an hourlong phone conversation last month. The two leaders plan further discussions during their scheduled meeting at the White House on June 19, it said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv could not be reached Friday for comment on the newspaper report.

Russian sale of fighter planes to Syria alarms Israel

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Israel is concerned about reported Russian deliveries of advanced MiG-31 fighter planes to its enemy Syria as part of an armaments drive, the top-selling Hebrew daily reported on Tuesday.
The MiG-31, considered one of the best fighters in the world, can carry guided missiles with a range of more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) and is capable of striking 24 different targets simultaneously, Yediot Aharonot said.

"This information is more concerning when put in the context of massive armaments purchases made recently by the Syrians," Yuval Steinitz, an MP from Israel's right-wing opposition Likud party, was quoted as telling the daily.

"If Syria acquires the MiG-31 we can no longer rule out the idea that this country is preparing for war," said Steinitz, a former chairman of Israel's defence and foreign affairs parliamentary committee.

A Russian newspaper reported on Tuesday that Russia has begun delivering five MiG-31E interceptors to Syria as part of an agreement reached this year, and that Moscow also plans to sell Damascus its MiG-29M/M2 dual role fighters.

The Israeli media has recently carried alarmist reports that a war with Syria could erupt as early as this summer, following Israeli intelligence reports that Damascus was preparing for such a conflict.

Two Israeli cabinet ministers have confirmed, however, that the government has approached Syria about the possibility of renewing peace talks.

Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000, mainly because of a dispute over the return of the strategic Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981.


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see also: Report: Russia Sending MiGs to Syria

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Originally posted by Sgt_Schlappy:
Report: Olmert will cede Golan for peace

source link

JERUSALEM - Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime, a newspaper reported Friday.

That is an extremely bad idea. With the recent battles in Lebenon and Syrias' backing and re-arming of Hezbollah, giving up the heights would be national suicide. Just my 2cents.

quote:

Originally posted by Sgt_Schlappy:
Russian sale of fighter planes to Syria alarms Israel

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Israel is concerned about reported Russian deliveries of advanced MiG-31 fighter planes to its enemy Syria as part of an armaments drive, the top-selling Hebrew daily reported on Tuesday.



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see also: Report: Russia Sending MiGs to Syria

Never mind...

Russian arms dealer denies plans to sell fighters to Syria, Iran

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LE BOURGET, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's arms export monopoly dismissed on Tuesday reports that it plans to supply fighter jets to Syria and Iran.

"Russia has no plans to deliver fighter jets to Syria and Iran," Rosoboronexport CEO Sergei Chemezov told journalists at Le Bourget air show near Paris.

Chemezov said that if any such deal does come under discussion, the media will be informed.

His remarks came in response to a report by Russian business daily Kommersant, which said Rosoboronexport began the delivery of five heavy twin-engined interceptor fighters MiG-31E to Syria, under a deal negotiated during President Bashar Assad's trip to Moscow last fall.

Don't rule it out yet. Rosoberonexport appears to deny arms sales until they happen. Watch this space.

As far as I see the Israeli - Syrian conflict, the Syrians are fattened with Russian disinformation and misinformation about the chances of war with Israel in order to promote their arms sells to Syria. It reminds me the pre 1967 war's affect that contributed and pushed Syria to join Egypt to provoke and endanger Israel with their planed invasion into its borders.

I think its not a proper time for Israel to talk "peace" with Syria because the aims of the Syrians is to bypass their weak position in Lebanon case and in Hariri's murder. They want Israel only to be used and thin shield in front of coming political international attack. The Syrian regime based on small but hard military junta manned especially with the Alawi minority in Syria. They really can't make true peace with Israel. They will endanger their status and stability within Syria and their vital link to the Iranian hard regime. It doesn't worth to make "peace" with Israel in such endangerments.

Murky raid heats up Syria-Israel tension

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DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria and Israel last turned their guns on each other in all-out war a quarter century ago, but tensions are sky high after a mysterious Israeli airstrike deep into Syrian territory last week.

America says the target was Iranian missiles, while others have raised questions of possible North Korean links. Israel, however, hasn't even acknowledged anything happened, and Syria has said very little beyond announcing the incursion and complaining to the United Nations.

Still, neither side appears eager for an escalation. Israel put its troops on high alert along the Golan Heights frontier and Syria discreetly called up some air defense reservists, but the crisis has seemed more a war of nerves than preparation for hostilities.

"The picture is still foggy," said Christopher Pang, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Most information has come from outside: A U.S. official confirmed this week that Israeli warplanes had staged a strike. The official, who would not speak publicly, said the target was Iranian-made weapons stored in northeastern Syria and destined for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The Washington Post reported Thursday, however, that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility. It cited an unidentified former Israeli official as saying the airstrike was aimed at a site capable of making unconventional weapons.

Syrian's U.N. envoy denied the country had weapons for Hezbollah. And its information minister, Mohsen Bilal, told the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat on Thursday that the accusations of North Korean nuclear help were a "new American spin to cover up" for Israel.

Other theories abound.

One possibility is the Israeli planes simply made an intelligence-gathering reconnaissance flight, said David Hartwell, Middle East and North Africa editor for Jane's Country Risk.

Others speculate Israel's military was testing Syrian air defenses or perhaps scouting an air corridor for a possible strike against Iran.

Either way, the incursion probably served at least one main purpose — as a warning, experts said.

"In terms of deterrence, the effect was clear, by invading Syrian airspace, by showing that Israel is not only able, but willing, to still launch strikes against Syrian targets," Pang said.

North Korea piqued interest when it condemned the Israeli air incursion.

The communist state has a long alliance with Syria, and Israeli experts say North Korea and Iran both have been major suppliers of missiles to Syria. But many experts, including Hartwell, said they found the idea of North Korean nuclear help to Syria unlikely, in part because Syria's weak economy leaves it hard-pressed to afford nuclear technology.

Israel's silence has been among the most curious things about the incident.

In the past, Israel often was swift to announce such operations, while Syria was slow to comment. This time, Israel has said nothing and Syria was the one to announce that its air space had been entered and that Israeli aircraft had "dropped munitions."

Despite that, Syria didn't ask the U.N. Security Council to meet over the incident or to condemn the act. It merely asked for its complaint to be circulated.

The location and timing of the strike also are puzzling.

Some experts think it unlikely that Syria would put sensitive projects in its northeast near the border with Turkey, which is friendly with Israel as well as with Syria. Syria's main strategic military installations are believed to be in its central desert.

Others note Syria has long been thought to be a transit point for moving weapons to Hezbollah, with which Israel fought an inclusive war last year, and question why Israel would strike now.

"My assessment is that there is a very complex security picture that I think is potentially driving these events," said Pang, but he added: "If I had to pin down to the most likely ... to me the Hezbollah-Iranian connection seems the most plausible."

Syria and Israel fought each other during both the 1967 and 1973 Mideast wars. Their last military confrontation was in neighboring Lebanon in 1982, when Israel's air force shot down dozens of Syrian warplanes and Israeli forces destroyed Syrian tanks.

That history of conflict keeps the region jittery about the possibility of a new war, and Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faysal Mekdad, made clear Thursday that the latest faceoff has the potential for a new blowup.

"Syria will respond to any Israeli acts, now and in the future," he said.

Speculation heats up over what Israel hit in Syria

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WASHINGTON (AFP) — Speculation over the target of an Israeli air strike in Syria has deepened with weekend press reports highlighting a possible North Korean nuclear connection, or a "dry run" for an attack on Iran.

New accounts in US and British newspapers of the September 6 raid went much further than initial claims by US Pentagon officials, that the attack was a warning to Syria against rearming the extremist Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

The Washington Post quoted an unidentified US expert on the Middle East as saying the target was a northern Syrian facility officially described as an agricultural research center on the Euphrates River, near the Turkish border.

After interviewing Israeli participants in the mysterious raid, the expert "reported that the attack appears to have been linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying material from North Korea labeled as cement."

"The expert said it is not clear what the ship was carrying, but the emerging consensus in Israel was that it delivered nuclear equipment," the Post said Saturday.

Interviewed on Fox News Sunday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates refused to comment on the raid.

Neither would he confirm the veracity of leaked intelligence reports suggesting that North Korea may be helping Syria build a nuclear weapons facility.

"But all I will say is we are watching the North Koreans very carefully. We watch the Syrians very carefully," he said.

If North Korea were flouting its UN obligations to disarm its nuclear program and Syria were pursuing weapons of mass destruction, "I think it would be a real problem," Gates added.

Syria angrily denied as US "lies" suggestions that it was receiving nuclear material from North Korea, while the Stalinist state for its part said the reports were "groundless."

In London, the Sunday Times quoted an Israeli source as saying the raid destroyed what could have been a "devastating Syrian surprise for Israel."

"We've known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds (missiles), but Israel can't live with a nuclear warhead," the source told the newspaper.

The New York Times, citing a US administration official, reported that Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria to take pictures of possible nuclear installations staffed by North Korean engineers.

"The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left," the official said last week, according to the report.

North Korea could either be trying to evade UN inspections of its nuclear weapons program, or the material could be bound for Iran, the Sunday Times said.

Another British paper, the Observer, headlined its account Sunday: "Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?"

It said the attack involved a flight through the airspace of Israel's ally Turkey by up to eight aircraft, including cutting-edge F-15s and F-16s equipped with 500-pound (227-kilogram) bombs and Maverick missiles.

Israel had shown that "if Syria's ally, Iran, comes close to acquiring a nuclear weapon, and the world fails to prevent it, either through diplomatic or military means, then Israel will stop it on its own," the Observer said.

In keeping with an official wall of silence on the event, Israel's military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told lawmakers Sunday he would not address the incident directly.

But he said the Jewish state had now recovered its "deterrent capability" following the 2006 war against Hezbollah, Israeli public radio reported.

do u think why israel decler war in sryia?

Images of bombed Syrian nuclear reactor released

Yeah that makes alot of sense. So israel is going to declare war on syria becuase Israel bombed a nuke research site..........brilliant

quote:

Originally posted by Fantaros:
Yeah that makes alot of sense. So israel is going to declare war on syria becuase Israel bombed a nuke research site..........brilliant

You're excused, just don't do it again

I really can't remember all the "in's and out's" concerning Israel, but I do know a few things. The smartest thing Israel could do is everytime the US suggests Israel gives up another piece of anything, to politely turn them down. I can't remember anything the US has suggested to Israel that didn't turn out to be a disaster for Israel. There will be no peace in the middle east as long as Israel remains a viable country which is as it should be. Given the opportunity as soon as one of these morons from another 8th world country is given the bomb, they will use it as quick as they can, but there's just one little problem. When Israel is hit---their protocol is to turn the middle east to glass. Israel Intell service knows more about what's going on in the middle east than the US even understands and if Israel hits Iran, you can bet they have a great reason and it's not that Iran is going to do something to Israel 20 years from now---but w/i days or weeks would be more likely. The hammer that the US has is it's nuke capability assistance to Israel, but my uneducated guess is Israel already has enough to do the job as needed. Israel cannot afford to trust any other middle eastern country as time has shown. If any country in the middle east could snap their fingers and make Israel disappear---it would sound like a herd of crickets right now. Am not going to jump into the religous thoughts on this with the exception that the Jews are God's chosen people (my opinion, don't knock it) so whoever (or is it whomever?) decides to take on Israel is going to have a very bad day.

quote:

Originally posted by Sgt_Schlappy:
Report: Olmert will cede Golan for peace

source link

JERUSALEM - Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime, a newspaper reported Friday.

Yediot Ahronot said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad through German and Turkish diplomats saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and to give up the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The paper said Syria had not responded to the overture, quoting unidentified officials close to Olmert.

Olmert's office would not comment on the report. But an Israeli official said earlier in the week that Israel had been taking soundings on Syria's intentions through an undisclosed third party. That official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name.

Israel and Syria have held several rounds of peace talks in the past. The last attempt broke down in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, which Syrian artillery shelled Israelis before the 1967 war.

Assad has recently urged Israel to return to the negotiating table, but has not publicly addressed Israel's demand that Damascus scale back its ties with Iran, its main ally in the region, and stop backing Lebanese and Palestinian groups committed to Israel's destruction.

Yediot said President Bush gave Olmert the green light for negotiations with Syria in an hourlong phone conversation last month. The two leaders plan further discussions during their scheduled meeting at the White House on June 19, it said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv could not be reached Friday for comment on the newspaper report.

Wow !!!! That smacks of warning Syria to butt out unless they want a piece of what Iran is about to get !!!! Go Israel !!!!!!