[So although Iran is financing Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, they all don’t want to get their asses kicked. Stands to reason. All out war is not in their interests. Belman]
Ynet
Syria refused to fight on Iran’s side in case of a military stand-off between Tehran and Israel following an attack on its nuclear facilities, an American document published by WikiLeaks revealed on Wednesday.
The statements in the document, dated December 20, 2009, were probably made by a diplomatic source who spoke with American Embassy officials in Damascus.
The source said Syria refused Iranian demands to join them in case a war breaks between Israel and the Islamic Republic or Hezbollah.
According to the report, official Iranian sources visited Syria at the beginning of the same month in order to solidify alliances ahead of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The quoted diplomatic source claimed the Iranians told their Syrian counterparts that it was not a question of will Israel attack, but rather a question of when it will attack.
Damascus told the Iranians in response not to expect Syria, Hezbollah or Hamas to take part in this war.
According to the source, Syrian officials replied by saying that Iran was strong enough to develop its own nuclear program and fight against Israel. The Iranians, on their part, were not so pleased with the response.
I don’t think Syria wants to go to war with Israel. In the case of war, Syria would be flooded with Jewish refugees, fleeing from an Israel that would be a raging, out-of-control inferno; and because Israel’s civil defense forces amount to essentially nil, Syria would have to do the evacuating for them. Who wants to be saddled with that kind of burden?
Nonetheless this is optimistic news.
SYRIAN SUPPORT FOR IRAN
While I wish this to be true, can we really count on this? I would love to know it to be the case, but, Syria has con’t be trusted to be trusted here. Israel, when and if they go forward here with an actual Iran first-strike, will most likely need to do some airspace clearing both to and from its assigned targets. Personlly, to trust Wikileaks here is foolish. All this smacks of diplomat-speak. If and when the conversation ever existed in the first place. Personally, I only trust the Syrians…to be Syrians.