Haaretz reported on Friday that PM Benjamin Netanyahu had asked Russian PM Vladimir Putin to cancel the sale of long-range surface-to-sea cruise missiles to the Syrian Army.
By Barak Ravid
Despite Israel's objections, Russia will not cancel its sale of advanced missiles to Syria, the Kremlin announced on Sunday.
Haaretz reported on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to cancel the sale of long-range surface-to-sea cruise missiles to the Syrian Army.
Following the Haaretz report, Sergei Prikhodko, a senior adviser to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, told the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow would fulfill all agreements it had made with foreign countries and would not halt the deal.
"Lately, some Israeli media outlets have been actively disseminating information distorting Russia's position on the implementation of its obligations to Syria, including in the sphere of military and technical cooperation," Prikhodko said. "I would like to stress that the Russian Federation honors all the agreements that were previously signed between Russia and Syria."
The agreement in question is for P-800 Yakhont missiles, a highly accurate Russian weapon with a 300-kilometer range capable of carrying a warhead of up to 200 kilograms.
Israel is concerned the projectiles could significantly improve the Syrian military's ability to target its naval ships. The Chinese-made C-802 missile Syria currently has is less accurate, has a range of just 102 kilometers and can carry a warhead of no more than 150 kilograms.
Jerusalem also fears the more advanced missiles could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-supported Lebanese militia, which would create a significant threat to naval ships in Israeli ports and the Mediterranean Sea.
Source:
Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Report: Israel planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots in Syria
Let us pray this won't happen.
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reports that Israel is preparing to strike Hezbollah targets in Syria; Al-Arabi Al-Quds reports that western diplomats have asked Bashar Assad to refrain from interfering with Israel-PA direct peace talks.
By Jack Khoury and Haaretz Service
Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.
The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.
The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area.
According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.
The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.
According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.
Western diplomats to Assad: Don't interfere in Israel-PA talks
Also on Saturday, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that western nations, including the United States, have in recent days asked Syria to refrain from negatively interfering with the upcoming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, set to open next week in Washington.
According to the report, American officials expressed their firm opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad taking any position or exerting any influence on the talks, as they fear that another failure of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could lead to even graver consequences than did past failed talks.
The report said that Assad was also asked to restrain Palestinian militant organizations that operate on Syrian territory, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Source:
The Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reports that Israel is preparing to strike Hezbollah targets in Syria; Al-Arabi Al-Quds reports that western diplomats have asked Bashar Assad to refrain from interfering with Israel-PA direct peace talks.
By Jack Khoury and Haaretz Service
Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.
The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.
The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area.
According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.
The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.
According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.
Western diplomats to Assad: Don't interfere in Israel-PA talks
Also on Saturday, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that western nations, including the United States, have in recent days asked Syria to refrain from negatively interfering with the upcoming direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, set to open next week in Washington.
According to the report, American officials expressed their firm opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad taking any position or exerting any influence on the talks, as they fear that another failure of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could lead to even graver consequences than did past failed talks.
The report said that Assad was also asked to restrain Palestinian militant organizations that operate on Syrian territory, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Source:
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Israel launches campaign to halt Lebanon Gaza-bound flotilla
Foreign Ministry instructs Israeli ambassadors to ask senior American, UN, EU and Egyptian officials to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop latest planned flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to Gaza.
By Jack Khoury, Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid and Zvi Bar'el
Israel launched a diplomatic effort yesterday to keep the latest planned flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli ambassadors to ask senior officials in the United States, United Nations, European Union and Egypt to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop the flotilla, which Israel deems a "provocation" in light of its recent decision to end its civilian blockade of Gaza.
Syria has been included because senior Israeli officials say it is helping to organize the flotilla. Hezbollah is also involved, they charged.
"This is a clear and organized provocation," one official said.
Officially, the flotilla is being organized by Palestinian businessman Yasser Kashlak, who last month tried and failed to organize another flotilla from Lebanon. The two ships are slated to sail from Tripoli by the end of this week.
Israel's message to international diplomats is that it views this flotilla particularly gravely because it is sailing from the port of an enemy country.
Last week, Egypt cooperated with Israel in diverting a Libyan aid ship headed to Gaza to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, and so Israeli officials are hopeful it will do the same this time.
Israel is still refusing to release three Turkish ships captured in a May 31 raid on an earlier Gaza-bound flotilla, saying it will not do so without a written pledge from the Turkish government that the ships will not be used for such activities again. That raid, which resulted in the death of nine Turks after passengers attacked the Israeli boarding party, tore gaping holes in the already tattered Israeli-Turkish relations.
A representative of the IHH organization, which sponsored that flotilla, told the Turkish daily Hurriyet that in the past, Israel has demanded such guarantees only from the groups that organized the ships, not from the governments of the countries whence they sailed.
Ankara, for its part, is demanding that Israel supply tugs to tow the ships to Turkey. Israel has yet to respond to this demand, and is apparently unwilling to discuss it until the Turks respond to Israel's demand for a written guarantee.
Turkish officials said they believe Israel is using its possession of the ships to prove its claim that the government in Ankara played an active role in the flotilla. Turkey insists the flotilla was strictly a private initiative by IHH.
Turkey is also still demanding that Israel apologize for the raid's casualties - a demand Israel has rejected on the grounds that no casualties would have occurred had its soldiers not been attacked. Recently, however, Ankara has slightly softened its stance, saying it will hold off on insisting on an apology until Israel completes its own probe of the raid.
Ankara is angry that Washington has not launched its own inquiries, as one of the nine killed in the incident was an American citizen of Turkish descent. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even charged that Washington is indifferent "because he was a Turk."
American officials say they have asked Turkey for the autopsy report, which is necessary to conduct any probe, but that Ankara refuses to hand it over.
IHH, for its part, is seeking to file lawsuits against Israel over the flotilla in international courts. The group recently invited Israeli lawyers to a conference to discuss how this could best be done.
One of the invitations went to Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which eventually decided to decline the invitation on the grounds that Israel, like many other countries, defines IHH as a terrorist organization. Attendance at such a conference could result in legal proceedings against the Israeli participants.
Private Israeli attorneys invited to attend evidently declined for the same reason, and a source familiar with the guest list said that, in the end, it includes no Israelis.
However, IHH claims the list does include lawyers from 25 other countries, including the United States, Britain, Egypt and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, American activists are trying to raise funds for their own ship to Gaza, which they plan to call "The Audacity of Hope," after U.S. President Barack Obama's best-selling memoir.
Source:
By Jack Khoury, Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid and Zvi Bar'el
Israel launched a diplomatic effort yesterday to keep the latest planned flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Ministry instructed Israeli ambassadors to ask senior officials in the United States, United Nations, European Union and Egypt to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop the flotilla, which Israel deems a "provocation" in light of its recent decision to end its civilian blockade of Gaza.
Syria has been included because senior Israeli officials say it is helping to organize the flotilla. Hezbollah is also involved, they charged.
"This is a clear and organized provocation," one official said.
Officially, the flotilla is being organized by Palestinian businessman Yasser Kashlak, who last month tried and failed to organize another flotilla from Lebanon. The two ships are slated to sail from Tripoli by the end of this week.
Israel's message to international diplomats is that it views this flotilla particularly gravely because it is sailing from the port of an enemy country.
Last week, Egypt cooperated with Israel in diverting a Libyan aid ship headed to Gaza to the Egyptian port of El-Arish, and so Israeli officials are hopeful it will do the same this time.
Israel is still refusing to release three Turkish ships captured in a May 31 raid on an earlier Gaza-bound flotilla, saying it will not do so without a written pledge from the Turkish government that the ships will not be used for such activities again. That raid, which resulted in the death of nine Turks after passengers attacked the Israeli boarding party, tore gaping holes in the already tattered Israeli-Turkish relations.
A representative of the IHH organization, which sponsored that flotilla, told the Turkish daily Hurriyet that in the past, Israel has demanded such guarantees only from the groups that organized the ships, not from the governments of the countries whence they sailed.
Ankara, for its part, is demanding that Israel supply tugs to tow the ships to Turkey. Israel has yet to respond to this demand, and is apparently unwilling to discuss it until the Turks respond to Israel's demand for a written guarantee.
Turkish officials said they believe Israel is using its possession of the ships to prove its claim that the government in Ankara played an active role in the flotilla. Turkey insists the flotilla was strictly a private initiative by IHH.
Turkey is also still demanding that Israel apologize for the raid's casualties - a demand Israel has rejected on the grounds that no casualties would have occurred had its soldiers not been attacked. Recently, however, Ankara has slightly softened its stance, saying it will hold off on insisting on an apology until Israel completes its own probe of the raid.
Ankara is angry that Washington has not launched its own inquiries, as one of the nine killed in the incident was an American citizen of Turkish descent. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even charged that Washington is indifferent "because he was a Turk."
American officials say they have asked Turkey for the autopsy report, which is necessary to conduct any probe, but that Ankara refuses to hand it over.
IHH, for its part, is seeking to file lawsuits against Israel over the flotilla in international courts. The group recently invited Israeli lawyers to a conference to discuss how this could best be done.
One of the invitations went to Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which eventually decided to decline the invitation on the grounds that Israel, like many other countries, defines IHH as a terrorist organization. Attendance at such a conference could result in legal proceedings against the Israeli participants.
Private Israeli attorneys invited to attend evidently declined for the same reason, and a source familiar with the guest list said that, in the end, it includes no Israelis.
However, IHH claims the list does include lawyers from 25 other countries, including the United States, Britain, Egypt and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, American activists are trying to raise funds for their own ship to Gaza, which they plan to call "The Audacity of Hope," after U.S. President Barack Obama's best-selling memoir.
Source:
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