Vice premier says U.S. will intervene if
chemical weapons are used on Syrian citizens, or if weapons fall into
wrong hands • Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah meet secretly to
discuss Syria's chemical weapons arsenal • Assad reportedly seeks asylum
in Venezuela.
Jordan's King Abdullah: He
has reportedly ruled out a joint attack on Syria's chemical weapons.
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Photo credit: Avi Ohayon (GPO)  |
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The U.S. is gearing up for a possible military
intervention in Syria in the event that chemical weapons are used on
Syrian citizens or alternately fall into the wrong hands, Strategic
Affairs Minister and Vice Prime Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon told
Israel Radio on Thursday.
Ya’alon voiced conviction that it was unlikely
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's sizable chemical weapons stockpiles
would be used against Israel at this time, but said, “The very
discussion of the issue, and the U.S.'s need to draw red lines, points
to how dangerous Assad really is."
"The U.S. and others have drawn two red lines recently,” Ya'alon said.
“One [was] back in September, for the event
that these weapons fall into hostile, irresponsible hands, perhaps
Hezbollah, or other groups, possibly al-Qaida. The other red line was
drawn approximately four weeks ago on the understanding that Assad was
considering and preparing and planning to use chemical weapons on his
own people. That is why all the neighboring countries in the region are
concerned, including Israel.
“The U.S. is certainly spearheading the battle
here, both diplomatically and in preparation for the possibility of
intervention. I don't know about deploying forces, but certainly there
are different options to prevent this. Therefore, all the interested
parties, including Israel, are closely monitoring the situation."
Earlier, in an interview with Army Radio on
Tuesday, Ya’alon dismissed reports that Syrian government forces had
fired chemical agents at rebels fighting to topple Assad's government.
"As things stand now, we do not have any
confirmation or proof that [chemical weapons] have already been used,
but we are definitely following events with concern," he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reports confirmed
Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly met with
Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman to discuss the risk of Syria's chemical
weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants.
Two television stations and several Israeli
news sites quoted unnamed Israeli officials as confirming the original
report of the summit in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
According to the Arabic report, Netanyahu
proposed a coordinated Israeli-Jordanian lightning airstrike to destroy
Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles. The report said the Jordanians
declined the option out of concern that it would cause chemical fallout
around the target sites, and because such an attack could cause
thousands of civilian casualties.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi also reported that Israel had
proposed a second option, a comprehensive joint military incursion into
Syria. The operation would include at least 8,000 soldiers entering
Syria from different directions to secure and neutralize the chemical
weapons sites, safeguarding them until a decision could be made about
how to best dispose of the stocks.
The Jordanians did not support the Israeli proposals, according to the report, but neither did they completely reject them.
Netanyahu's spokesmen have declined to comment
on the reports, but a senior Israeli official did say that Israel was
"very coordinated" with the U.S. and the West on Syria's chemical
weapons, and that Jordan was part of this coordination.
As one of Syria's southern neighbors, Israel
has been concerned about the risk of President Bashar al-Assad's
chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants or
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters amid the tumult of the ongoing Syrian
uprising. Syria is believed to possess a formidable chemical arsenal.
Israel has warned that it could intervene if it felt there was a real risk of such a scenario unfolding.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in
1994 and meetings between their leaders are not unusual and are often
announced by both sides.
According to the Al-Quds Al-Arabi report,
Israeli-Jordanian relations have been tense on the surface, mainly due
to the stalled diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians
and Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip in November. Despite
this, Netanyahu and King Abdullah have found a common language on Syria,
in part due to the joint groundwork by the two countries' intelligence
services ahead of the meeting.
Israel's Channel 2 said the latest talks
included a "very long discussion" about "cooperation with Jordan with
regard to the fate of Syria's chemical weapons." It did not elaborate.
The head of Syria's military police, Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who defected to join the uprising against
Assad, told the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television station on Tuesday that
Assad's forces had indeed used chemical weapons in Homs.
Shallal said the Syrian president, in a
desperate move to preserve his power, had also ordered his forces to
increase the use of the chemical weapons.
"I defected to join the rebels after I saw
with my own eyes how the Assad regime jails innocent civilians and
slaughters them, and imprisons soldiers suspected of trying to defect,"
said Shallal.
Meanwhile, it appears that Assad has also been
busy preparing his escape route. According to reports published in
Turkey on Tuesday, the Syrian president is considering leaving his
country and is seeking political asylum in Venezuela.
According to the Turkish publication Aksam, Venezuelan
Foreign Ministry officials told Turkish diplomats that the Assad regime
had sent a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez requesting
political asylum. It was unclear whether Chavez had agreed to the
request. Another asylum option for Assad is Cuba, according to the
report.
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