"Israeli" Official to NYT: We’ll Strike again in Syria

Local Editor

A senior "Israeli" official signaled on Wednesday that Tel Aviv was considering additional military strikes in Syria to prevent the alleged transfer of weapons to Hizbullah.

He further claimed that "the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, would face crippling consequences if he retaliated."

In an interview with New York Times daily, the official said: ""Israel" is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hizbullah."
"The transfer of such weapons to Hizbullah will destabilize and endanger the entire region," the official claimed.
"If Syrian President al-Assad reacts by attacking "Israel", or tries to strike Israel through his proxies," the official said, "he will risk forfeiting his regime, for "Israel" will retaliate."

According to the daily, "The precise motives for "Israel's" warning were uncertain: Israel could be seeking to restrain Syria's behavior to avoid taking further military action, or alerting other countries to another military strike."

"Israel," he said, "will continue its policy of interdicting attempts to strengthen Hizbullah, but will not intercede in the Syrian civil war as long as al-Assad desists from direct or indirect attacks."

Amos Yadlin, "Israel's" former military intelligence chief who now directs the so-called "Institute for National Security Studies" in Tel Aviv, said that the timing of the warning could have been linked to intelligence "Israel" had received.

That, he said, could be a Syrian intention to react, albeit belatedly, to the recent airstrikes on its soil, an imminent shipment of weapons to Hizbullah, or signs of action by Syrian proxies in the Golan Heights.

Source: NYT, Edited by moqawama.org