(BBC |
JAFFA – Israel and Syria engaged in recent secret talks mediated by Turkey, Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed in an interview yesterday.
"Turkey is used as a channel of communication" and "listens to both sides' positions," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanfani told a Kuwaiti newspaper.
The confirmation follows an exclusive WND report in February revealing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government has been holding high-level talks with Syria via Turkey regarding renewing negotiations over an Israeli retreat from the strategic Golan Heights.
Top diplomatic sources in Jerusalem at the time said Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, had been passing official messages on a regular basis to Syrian President Assad regarding Israel's willingness to negotiate over the Golan. The messages were being transmitted by Turkish mediators with the sanctioning of Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
The Golan Heights is strategic, mountainous territory looking down on Israeli and Syrian population centers twice used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.
A number of Israeli diplomats hinted the past few days that Israel and Syria might renew talks.
Barak said the revival of peace talks with Damascus is a key foreign policy objective, according to a statement released yesterday.
Olmert last week said Israel was "interested" in talking with Syria in an effort to prompt Damascus to break with the "Axis of Evil."
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Friday that "all efforts" are being made to "bring Syria to the negotiating table in order to sign a peace treaty."
Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio, "We know exactly what the price would be," namely, he stated, an Israeli evacuation of the Golan Heights.
According to a report yesterday in Israel's Haaretz daily, Olmert also asked members of the U.S. congress and other foreign envoys to pass messages to Assad regarding the possibility of restarting negotiations.
But some of the foreign envoys who met with Assad said that they were surprised to see in his office, alongside photos of his dead father, photographs of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah Sec. Gen.l Hassan Nasrallah, which led the envoys to believe that Syria is strongly committed to an alliance with Iran and Hezbollah, Haaretz reported.
'Furious frenzy' to get Russian missiles
The confirmation of Israel-Syria talks comes after WND reported Syria, aided by Russia and Iran, in recent months has been furiously acquiring rockets and missiles, including projectiles capable of hitting any point in Israel. The officials listed anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles as some of the arms procured by Syria.
A Jordanian security official said one of the main reasons Damascus did not retaliate after Israel carried out its Sept. 6 air strike inside Syria – which allegedly targeted a nascent nuclear facility – was because Syria's rocket infrastructure was not yet complete.
The official said that after the Israeli air strike, Syria picked up the pace of acquiring rockets and missiles, largely from Russia with Iranian backing, with the goal of completing its missile and rocket arsenal by the end of the year. The Jordanian official said Syria aims to possess the capacity to fire more than 100 rockets into Israel per hour for a sustained period of time.
"The Syrians have three main goals: to maximize their anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missile and rocket capabilities," explained the Jordanian official.
According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran.
"The Iranians opened an extended credit line with Russia for Syria with the purpose of arming Syria," said one Jordanian security official.
"Russia's involvement and strategic positioning is almost like a return to its Cold War stance," the official said.
Both the Israeli and Jordanian officials told WND large quantities of Syrian rockets and missiles are being stockpiled at the major Syrian ports of Latakia and Tartus.
Syria's new acquisitions include Russia's S-300 surface-to-air missile defense shield, which is similar to the U.S.-funded, Israeli engineered Arrow anti-missile system currently deployed in Israel. The S-300 system is being run not by Syria but by Russian naval technicians who work from Syria's ports, security officials said.
New ballistic missiles and rockets include Alexander rockets and a massive quantity of various Scud surface-to-surface missiles, including Scud B and Scud D missiles.
Israeli security officials noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles had.
In addition to longer-range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter-range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter rockets, some of which have been passed on to the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah.
Israel has information Syria recently acquired and deployed Chinese-made C-802 missiles, which were successfully used against the Israeli navy during Israel's war against Hezbollah in 2006. The missiles were passed to Syria by Iran, Israeli security officials told WND.
Russia recently sold to Syria advanced anti-tank missiles similar to the projectiles that devastated Israeli tanks during the last Lebanon war, causing the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Syria and Russia are negotiating the sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles.
To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.
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