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WORLD / Middle East
Israeli official muzzled on Syria attack
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-17 14:18
Jerusalem - Israel's chief of military intelligence was ordered Sunday
not to discuss an alleged air raid on Syria before a powerful
parliamentary panel, tightening the veil of secrecy the government has
thrown around the issue.
Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs and defense
committee, told reporters he instructed military intelligence chief Amos
Yadlin to avoid any mention of Syria at a committee meeting Sunday. Panel
members regularly report to journalists during and after committee
meetings.
In a statement some participants saw as an oblique reference to the
alleged Syria raid, Yadlin told the meeting, "Israel's deterrence has
been rehabilitated since the Lebanon war, and it affects the entire
regional system, including Iran and Syria," according to a lawmaker who
was present.
The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to disclose the meeting's contents to the media.
Foreign news reports have suggested that Israel struck a Syrian site
designed to make non-conventional weapons, possibly a nuclear
installation.
John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN, told Israeli Channel 10
TV he thought Israel might have been attacking a nuclear installation, "a
message not only to Syria, but to Iran."
"I think it would be unusual for Israel to conduct a military operation
inside Syria other than for a very high value target, and certainly a
Syrian effort in the nuclear weapons area would qualify," Bolton said in
an interview broadcast Sunday.
Bolton, who has long called for a hard line against the Syria and Iran,
did not indicate he had firsthand information about the incident.
Among the other possible explanations are that Israel was on an
intelligence-gathering mission, testing Syria's air defenses, scouting an
air corridor for a future strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, or
hitting a shipment of arms destined for Hezbollah.
In the past, Israel often has been swift to announce such operations.
This time, Syria?announced the incident, saying its air space had been
entered and that Israel had "dropped munitions." Syria has offered no
evidence of any Israeli attack.
Syria and Israel fought each other in the 1967 and 1973 Mideast wars.
Their last direct military confrontation was in neighboring Lebanon in
1982, when Israel's air force shot down dozens of Syrian warplanes and
Israel destroyed Syrian tanks.
Israel has dismissed recent calls by Syria to restart peace talks, citing
the Damascus regime's continued support for Palestinian militant groups
and Hezbollah.
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