By Calev Ben-David & Glen Carey - May 6, 2013 9:56 PM GMT+1000
Syria Crisis Nearly Completely Out of Control: Dowd
Syria threatened retaliation against Israel after an aerial strike on the outskirts of Damascus caused explosions that rocked the capital, increasing the risk of a wider regional conflict.
An Iron Dome short-range missile defence system stands near the northern Israeli city of Haifa on May 5, 2013. Syria deployed rocket batteries directed toward Israel, the pro-government Damas Post website said, and the Israeli army said two Iron Dome missile defense batteries were deployed in the north.
Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
Israel didn’t confirm involvement in the assault yesterday. Its military also carried out an airstrike in Syria on May 3, the Associated Press reported, citing unidentified Israeli officials who said the attack targeted a shipment of missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad told CNN the airstrikes were a “declaration of war” and that the government would retaliate in its own time. Information Minister Omran al- Zoubi said on state TV that Syria would use “any means” to protect its people. He said the overnight strike hit a military research center in Jamraya, northwest of Damascus. Syria deployed rocket batteries directed toward Israel, the pro- government Damas Post website said.
Israeli officials say Syria’s two-year-old civil war has increased the threat that Hezbollah or other militant groups will obtain weapons from the country and turn them on Israel. The Jewish state has repeatedly clashed with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed organization classified as terrorist by Israel and the U.S., though there has been little conflict between them since Israel’s most recent invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Rocket Batteries
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t address the attacks in opening remarks to his weekly Cabinet session yesterday. The Israeli leader did delay a scheduled trip to China for at least two hours to convene his inner security Cabinet. The Israeli army said two Iron Dome missile defense batteries were stationed in the north.
President Bashar al-Assad’s government is fighting a rebel movement backed by the U.S. and most European and Arab countries that has gained control in several parts of the country. Hezbollah and Iran are supporting Assad in the conflict.
The attacks had little impact on Israel financial markets. The benchmark stock index, which fell 0.1 percent yesterday, was up 0.4 percent as of 2:46 p.m. today. While benchmark bond prices fell yesterday, that was largely driven by a cut in Israel’s credit rating at Standard & Poor’s.
‘Calculated Risk’
Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, said the Jewish state was betting it could strike because Assad is too mired in his own civil war to carry out the threatened reprisals.
“Israel is taking a calculated risk that Assad, Iran and Hezbollah are right now fighting a war against the Syrian rebels and probably don’t want to open up a second front against a far more formidable enemy,” Spyer said by telephone. “If Israel has now done this twice with air strikes within the last 48 hours, its ‘shadow conflict’ with Iran is no longer in the shadows.”
Israel has threatened military strikes on Iran to curb its nuclear program before it becomes capable of making atomic bombs, if diplomatic efforts backed by the U.S. to achieve the same end aren’t successful. Israeli officials say Hezbollah has multiplied its weapons stocks since 2006 and obtained more sophisticated missiles with a greater range.
‘Green Light’
Iranian officials also warned of a possible retaliation. Israel “should know that these crimes won’t remain without a response,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said yesterday. Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the attacks “have taken place with a U.S. green light,” according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
The U.S. wasn’t informed of the airstrikes in advance, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper today cited an unidentified U.S. intelligence official as saying.
“We are looking with great concern at the recent developments in and around Syria that risk dragging the region into an increasingly violent and expanding conflict,” Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said today in Brussels.
President Barack Obama, in an interview with Spanish- language TV station Telemundo, declined to comment on the reported Israeli strike earlier this month.
“The Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah,” he said, according to a transcript.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged all sides to “exercise maximum calm and constraint” in order “to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict.” The UN estimates that Syria’s civil war has claimed more than 70,000 lives and created 1 million refugees.
Israel’s Arkia Israeli Airlines Ltd. suspended all flights from the northern city of Haifa to the southern city of Eilat yesterday on military order, Ynet said. An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said civil aviation will resume regular operations today following security assessments.
To contact the reporters on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net;
Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-05/syria-says-israelis-jets-strike-sending-fireball-over-damascus.html
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