It is suggested that the US and Turkey held off attacking Syria out of concern for Tel Aviv. I don’t buy it. Their concern is that Israel will retaliate leading to a major war in which they are involved. Ted Belman
Turkey to hold military exercise on Syrian border. Assad threatens to destroy Tel Aviv if attacked
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 4, 2011, 5:03 PM (GMT+02:00)
War tensions between Turkey, NATO and Syria shot up again Tuesday, Oct. 4, with the announcement from Ankara that Turkey embarks Wednesday on a 10-day “mobilization” exercise in the southern province of Hatay along the Syrian border, through which arms are being funneled to Syrian protesters. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected on the same day to visit the 7,000 Syrians who have taken refuge in Hatay from President Bashar Assad’s troops.
debkafile reported earlier Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has for three months staved off a military attack by Turkey or NATO for halting the exceptional brutality of his crackdown on protest by explicitly holding Greater Tel Aviv’s 1.2 million inhabitants under threat of missile retaliation.
Our military sources note that the Turkish exercise was announced the day after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held talks with Israeli leaders, during which he emphasized the importance of restoring ties with Turkey for deterring Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah menaces.
And a week ago, on Sept. 27, NATO’s European commander Gen. James Staviris visited Ankara. Both visits were apparently part of the build-up for the Turkish exercise, which will involve the 39th mechanized infantry brigade and 730 reserve soldiers. Its target: the mobilization of reserves and their rapid transfer to the Syrian border.
The drill may well revive speculation in Damascus that Turkey is preparing to go ahead with a plan to carve out a buffer enclave inside Syria to protect civilians and provide rebels with shelter and logistical and medical assistance. The Assad regime would no doubt regard this act as a direct attack on sovereign Syrian territory by a NATO member.
The announcement from Ankara added that Turkey would soon announce a roadmap for further sanctions to be imposed against Syria in addition to those already underway.
Earlier Tuesday, debkafile’s exclusive sources reported:
For the past three months, Syrian President Bashar Assad has staved off a military attack by Turkey or NATO for halting the exceptional brutality of his crackdown on protest by explicitly holding Greater Tel Aviv’s 1.2 million inhabitants under threat of missile retaliation. Iran and Hizballah are exercising the same deterrent. This standoff was the main theme of the talks US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv Monday, Oct. 3.
According to Western intelligence sources, Syria, Iran and Hizballah have charted a coordinated military operation for flattening metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel’s financial, industrial and cultural center, with thousands of missiles launched simultaneously by all three – plus the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami firing from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials have never publicly admitted that this threat is on record, but Western intelligence sources have reported that Israel reacted with a warning of its own: If a single Syrian missile explodes in Tel Aviv, Damascus will be first to pay the price, and if the missile offensive persists, one Syrian town after another will be destroyed.
The Israeli message to Assad cited the warnings Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other government members addressed in the past year to Hizballah, that if Tel Aviv comes under attack from its missiles, not only Beirut but all of Lebanon would go up in flames. Assad was given to understand that Syria would go the same way as Lebanon if it engaged in missile belligerence against Israel.
Bashar Assad’s threat to Israel was very much on Leon Panetta’s mind when he told reporters on the plane carrying him to Israel Monday for his first visit as defense secretary: “Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength,” he said.
Western military sources say that he was not only referring to Syria, Egypt and the Palestinians by this and other statements, but pointing at the widening rift between Israel and Turkey.
The US official believes that this rift plays into the hands of the Syrian ruler and grants him the freedom to issue dire threats against Israel to hold Turkey and NATO back from using military force against his vicious regime. For Panetta, this is a prime example of Israel failing to project its military strength for diplomatic gains that would be beneficial to the West in the uprisings sweeping the Arab world. The loss of Turkish-Israeli military cooperation, albeit not initiated by Israel, ties the hands of the US and NATO against striking Syria. Those sources report that Panetta does not absolve Ankara of responsibility for this situation.
Syria first threatened Israel with retaliation on Aug. 9 when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spent six hours with Bashar Assad in an effort on behalf of his own government and NATO to persuade him to stop the carnage his troops were perpetrating against his people.
Davutoglu warned Assad that if he did not desist from his actions he would share the fate of Muammar Qaddafi at the hands of NATO and Turkish forces.
The Syrian ruler’s response was harsh: From the moment a shot is fired against Syria, “it will take only six hours for Syria to devastate Tel Aviv and ignite the entire Middle East,” he said.
Assad was spelling out the warning issued on May 10 by a close crony, international business tycoon Rami Makhlouf, who said then: “If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel. No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
The barrage of Syrian threats was reinforced from Tehran Monday, Sept, 26 by Ayatollah Jafar Shoujouni, a close associate of the all-powerful Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Shoujouni recalled that when he visited Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last May, he assured him: “If Israelis come near Tehran, we will destroy Tel Aviv.”
The Iranian cleric and the Syrian businessman spoke in the same vein in the same month. This was no coincidence. Their threat has since been repeated with greater emphasis to provide the Assad regime with insurance for its survival against foreign military intervention while continuing its pitiless onslaught on dissent.
Syria and Turkey are increasingly at odds, debkafile’s military sources report. This week, Damascus accused the Turks of smuggling automatic and anti-tank weapons to the protesters, claiming to have uncovered a consignment in the protest center of Homs.
Ankara has initiated the process of freezing Assad family members’ bank accounts and assets whose worth is estimated at half a billion dollars.
Turkey is also weighing unilateral sanctions after the UN Security Council last week imposed an arms embargo on Syria although Russia succeeded in blocking a tough council resolution. Moscow was punishing the West for its military intervention in Libya and flatly opposed to giving NATO another such opportunity in Syria.
Damascus repeatedly warned Turkey in the past week of reprisals if its inspectors dare open freights on transit to Syria by ship, plane or land vehicle to search for embargoed arms.
At a time of dangerously spiralling tensions, there is no knowing when the Assad regime will determine that the first Turkish shot was fired and how it will retaliate.
Russia, China, thwart anti-Syria UN Security Council resolution
U.S. ‘outraged’ over veto of resolution, calls for Security Council to adopt ‘tough, targted sanctions’ on Syria.
By Shlomo Shamir, Natasha Mozgovaya and Reuters
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Russia and China have major oil concessions in Syria and do not want to see Western influence in the Middle East spread.
US welcomes Syrian opposition unification efforts – White House source
Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat – The US yesterday welcomed the Syrian
opposition reaching an agreement on the formation of the “Syrian National Council” [SNC] in Istanbul on Sunday. However Washington warned against immediate international recognition of the SNC until more information is available about its members and operations.
Following a two-day meeting in Istanbul, Syrian opposition leaders announced that they had reached an agreement on the aims and structure of the SNC, which was first announced last month.
SNC Chairman Burhan Ghailoun, a France-based academic and Syrian dissident, announced that the SNC had succeeded in uniting opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, both inside and outside of Syria.
Speaking to Agence-France Presse [AFP], Ghailoun said that “the Syrian National Council reunites the forces of the opposition and the peaceful revolution” adding that “the council rejects any outside interference that undermines the sovereignty of the Syrian people.”
Ghailoun stressed that the SNC will work to “mobilise all categories of people in Syria and give the necessary support for the revolution to progress and realise the aspirations of our people for the overthrow of the regime, its symbols and its head.”
A White House official told Asharq Al-Awsat yesterday that “we welcome the efforts of the Syrian opposition to unify their ranks.” However the US official decline to specifically welcome the formation of the SNC, saying “the process is still in an early stage, the important thing is for the [Syrian] opposition to unite and stand for universal rights and for it to be built upon genuine trust and cooperation for the future of Syria.” The White House official added “this is the message that we are sending to the
Syrians.”
As for the steps that the SNC must take to secure US recognition, along the lines of the US and indeed international recognition of the National Transitional Council [NTC] in Libya, the White House official told Asharq Al-Awsat that “there are a number of legal steps, we do not know all the [SNC] members or what they believe or whether they represent all the people of Libya.” He added “our concern is for the [Syrian] opposition to represent all the people of Syria and protects their rights.”
The SNC yesterday asked Istanbul to offer international recognition and protection to the Syrian opposition at home, however there is strong US reluctance to giving the Syrian opposition any promises or guarantees of protection, whilst most US officials are also extremely reluctant to see any foreign intervention in the volatile situation in Syria. The White House official told Asharq Al-Awsat that “it is not clear that the Syrian people are united in their view regarding whether or not the international community should play a role in what is happening [in Syria], this is the Syrian people’s revolution, not our revolution, however we want to help them to reach a transitional stage and achieve their ambitions.”
The SNC will reportedly include representatives from the Damascus
Declaration group, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a number of Kurdish political parties and groups, as well as the Syrian Local Co-ordination Committees that have led the protests across the country, in addition to other independent and tribal figures.
As for the questions about US Ambassador Robert Ford’s continued presence in Syria, the US official reiterated Washington’s position which is committed to Ford remaining in Damascus. The US official said “Ambassador Ford enjoys the complete confidence of this administration…we require his presence [in Damascus] more than at any time before.” US Ambassador Ford has been strongly criticized by the al-Assad regime, and even subject to attack and intimidation. Despite this, Washington is committed to his remaining as their representative in Syria, and the US official told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the threats against Ambassador Ford are unjustified and unacceptable, and we remind the Syrian government of its responsibility to protect the diplomats in Syria.” He added that Ford is carrying out an “extremely important mission”, namely “witnessing what is taking place in Syria.”
uh huh? Ted, Israel cannot go to war without our permission. Remember, Israel is our state. Remember too, I warned about what is happening on Occupy Wall St. Protests blaming Jews, SEE?come on y’ll, move to Israel. Station our troops in the Israeli desert. US of A troops should be in Judea, Samaria, american jews should be taxed 95% to pay off the national debt on their way out. All musloids out too. debt. taxed at 95%. Go now before we tax 100%. That day will come. This cannot continue, we cannot have 1% of billionares controlling the country, both musloids and jews have too much power in the US of A.
Actually their drone prototypes have all crashed and they refuse to use the ten they have bought from Israel. That’s “cutting their collective noses to spite Israel.”
The ant-Israel Obama Admin. is going to supply them with drones is the latest.
post-Ottoman Turkey has always wanted Hatay province. Hard to believe NATO will get suckered into this unless it gets the Turks to back off naval siege of Cyprus and violating the sovereignty of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Turks now have their own drones and have Pakistan at the ready to supply it with WMD technology. The cool madman Erdogan wants to be the first to initiate “The Second Holocaust” which will cement his status as The New Saladin in the Islamic world.
Another muslim brotherhood “democratic” uprising. What a surprise.
This would give Israel justification to unleash its nuclear arsenal on Iran and Syria.
Syria already is an enemy of Israel.
It’s only too bad Israel doesn’t have any “sensible” leaders. Now pawns of western imperialists you have plenty of. At least, some here are finally starting to see the writing on the wall. Ah, the duplicity of governments; they will impoverish, enslave and/or kill us all.
Jerry, you hit the jackpot on that one. All this business of alliances and conspiriacies is confusing; but the bottom line is that Turkey has become Israel’s most dangerous immediate threat. Look at the illogic in DEBKA’s analysis:
1. The Turks are threatening war with Israel, and already sparring with them in the Mediterranean.
2. The Turks (Israel’s enemies) are threatening to attack Syria.
3. The Syrians threaten to retalliate to any Turkish attack, by attacking Israel.
It seems that no matter WHAT happens in the Middle East, Israel gets the blame and is the object of attack. The Americans know this fully well, as the US government itself uses this tactic (viz recent statements by Defense Secretary Panetta, blaming Israel for the hostility against it). It’s disingenuous, therefore, to claim that ANY policy decision by the US concerning the Middle East has come about over concern for Israel’s safety. The Obama Administration is conspiring to gain the greatest advantage for itself, no matter what happens in the area — PERIOD. The safety of Tel Aviv does not figure into the equation. In fact, the longer Obama stays Israel’s hand, the more endangered TA becomes, as missles (including those with chemical warheads, from Qadaffi’s old stockpile) pour daily into the hands of Syria, Hizbullah and HAMAS.
Yes, Jerry. A Turkish “peacekeeping” operation in Syria means only one thing for Israel: Free passage for Turkish and Iranian tanks and troops into Israel. Any sensible Israeli leader would be making serious preparations to counter such a scenario.
Unfortunately, a victory by the Sunnis in Syria will give Turkey direct military access to a border with Israel. The Alawites of the current Syrian regime provide a buffer for Israel that will disappear if Assad loses his fight for survival. The US has again missed no opportunity to surround Israel with implacable enemies. Surprise! For their own reasons, China and Russia through their veto in the UN Security Council, have protected Israel.