- Title: SYRIA/ISRAEL: Syria is ready to defend any attacks, says Mohammad Habash
- Date: 7th September 2007
- Summary: (BN12) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (SEPTEMBER 6, 2007) (REUTERS) MOHAMAD HABASH, MEMBER OF SYRIAN PARLIAMENT, TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOHAMAD HABASH, MEMBER OF SYRIAN PARLIAMENT, SAYING: "Actually..Israel wants to act the victim role by denying these acts and this is a game which Israel is good at. They want to show up as victims because Syria promised to respond to
- Embargoed: 22nd September 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA4XC6MTNJMCOKP8PNELIIMGS1A
- Story Text: Tension was on the rise in Israel on Thursday (September 6) after Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory and warned it could respond.
Israel refused all comment on the report, which said no casualties or damage were caused in the overnight incident.
After months in which talk of reviving long-stalled peace negotiations has mingled with speculation on both sides that the other was preparing a surprise attack, Syrian officials hit out.
"Actually..Israel wants to act the victim role by denying these acts and this is a game which Israel is good at. They want to show up as victims because Syria promised to respond to those acts" said Syrian member of parliament, Mohamad Habash in an interview with Reuters.
Habash also said that despite not wanting conflict, Syria would defend itself.
"If Syria does not want new wars in the Middle East, this would not mean that it is not ready to defend its territories" Habash said.
The Israeli military spokesman's office said in a statement: "It is not our custom to respond to these kinds of reports."
The office has typically commented on such reports. But a security source said the government had imposed a news blackout on the issue. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also said there would be no comment beyond the military statement.
The White House also declined comment.
It is over a year since Syrian guns opened fire on Israeli aircraft and Israeli jets last struck in 2003 across a border that remains tense but largely quiet 34 years after the last war between the two neighbours ended in an edgy ceasefire.
Military analysts said Israel has conducted reconnaissance flights over Syria to probe its defences. One suggested that an aircraft may have run into technical problems.
Tensions between the two neighbours have been high in recent months, with some Israeli intelligence officials suggesting President Bashar al-Assad's administration might be ready to try to take by force parts of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the war of 1967 and held on to in fighting in 1973.
Syrian officials have said Syria was seeking peaceful means to liberate the territory, although some have also indicated that force remained an option if diplomacy failed.
Olmert, who launched his forces against Syrian-allied Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon a year ago, has been at pains to stress that he has no hostile intentions toward Damascus.
Some Israeli military officials have expressed alarm at what they say are reinforcements of Syrian positions and arms purchases. But Olmert has spoken out against alarmist comments.
He has also said he would like to reopen peace negotiations that have been stalled for seven years. Syrian officials, too, have said they would like peace. But there has been little sign of any concrete steps towards rapprochement.
Syria last said it fired at Israeli warplanes in June 2006, when Israeli aircraft buzzed a Syrian presidential palace.
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