Syria's
Assad warns Israel on air strikes and Golan
Syria's
President Bashar al-Assad has warned Israel that it will respond in
kind to any future air strikes.
30
May, 23.04 GMT, 2013
In
an interview with a Lebanese TV channel, he said there was "popular
pressure" to open a military front against Israel in the Golan
Heights.
He
also suggested Syria may have received the first shipment of an
advanced Russian air defence system.
Israel
has warned it would regard the Russian missiles as a serious threat
to its security.
Mr
al-Assad was speaking to al-Manar TV, which has close ties to the
Lebanese Shia militant movement Hezbollah, a close ally of the Syrian
government.
Israel
has carried out three air strikes on Syria to stop the transfer of
advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"There
is clear popular pressure to open a new front of resistance in the
Golan," Mr Assad said.
Israel
has occupied the Golan Heights since the 1967 war. It annexed the
territory in 1981, in a move that has not been recognised by the
international community.
Syrian
shells have hit Israeli positions on the Golan Heights, though it is
unclear whether they were aimed at rebels in border areas, and Israel
has returned fire.
Syria
and Israel have been in a state of war since 1948 but the border had
been relatively calm in recent years.
Russian
contracts
Excerpts
released from the al-Manar interview ahead of broadcast quoted Mr
Assad as saying Syria had already received a first shipment of S-300
missiles from Russia.
But
in the interview itself, he said only: "All we have agreed on
with Russia will be implemented and some of it has been implemented
recently, and we and the Russians continue to implement these
contracts."
The
S-300 is a highly capable surface-to-air missile system that, as well
as targeting aircraft, also has the capacity to engage ballistic
missiles.
Ahead
of the interview, Israeli government minister Silvan Shalom said
Israel would "take actions" to ensure that advanced weapons
did not reach groups such as Hezbollah, but there was no need to
"provoke an escalation".
He
told public radio: "Syria has had strategic weapons for years,
but the problem arises when these arms fall into other hands and
could be used against us. In that case, we would have to act."
The
military chief of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels, the Free
Syrian Army, has accused Hezbollah fighters of "invading"
Syria.
In
a BBC interview, Gen Selim Idriss claimed that more than 7,000
Hezbollah fighters were taking part in attacks on the rebel-held town
of Qusair.
More
than 50,000 residents were trapped in the town and a "massacre"
would occur if it fell, he added.
Talks
about talks
Mr
Assad also said Syria would "in principle" attend a peace
conference backed by the US and Russia, if there were not
unacceptable preconditions.
The
main opposition group outside Syria said it would not join the talks
while massacres continued.
Its
interim leader, George Sabra, said talk of diplomatic conferences was
farcical while Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah were
carrying out heinous crimes.
The
opposition has been meeting for more than a week in Istanbul to elect
new leaders and devise a strategy.
For
his part, Mr Assad said it would not be surprising if the conference
failed, and if it did, it would not make much difference on the
ground, because what he called the "terrorism" of the
rebels would continue.
Russian,
US and UN officials will meet next week in Geneva to prepare for the
proposed conference in June.
Doubts
Cast Over Reported S-300 Deliveries to Syria
30
May, 2013
MOSCOW,
May 30 (RIA Novosti) – Reports that Syria’s president had
confirmed receiving a consignment of Russian-manufactured S-300 air
defense systems emerged Thursday, but were quickly brought into
question.
In
comments widely reported across the world, Lebanese newspaper Al
Akhbar quoted Syrian President Bashar Assad as saying Damascus had
received initial deliveries of the S-300 system.
Assad's
remarks were allegedly made during a pre-recorded interview to be
aired on Hezbollah-controlled Almanar television channel on Thursday
evening at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time.
But
a high-level source at Lebanon-based Almanar, who said he had been
present throughout the interview, told RIA Novosti by telephone that
at no point did Assad explicitly confirm any S-300 deliveries.
When
Assad was asked about the delivery of the anti-missile systems, the
source – who requested that his name not be printed – said, the
Syrian president replied that “everything we have agreed with
Russia will be implemented, and a part of it has been implemented
already.”
By
Thursday afternoon, the Al Akhbar newspaper, which reported Assad's
comments as an exclusive, appeared to backtrack on the veracity of
its story, which also included a statement attributed to Assad that
the rest of the S-300 equipment "will arrive soon."
The
Assad quotes were "professionally stolen" through sources
at Almanar and any information provided by the television station is
more reliable, an Al Akhbar employee told RIA Novosti in a telephone
interview, also requesting anonymity.
Documents
revealing the existence of an agreement between Russia and Syria to
supply the sophisticated S-300 air defense system, which can target
ballistic missiles as well as aircraft, were first reported in the
Russian press in 2011, but official confirmations have been scant.
However, earlier this week Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov
mentioned the deal’s existence, according to Russian media, saying
a contract for providing Syria with S-300s had been signed “several
years ago.”
Reached
by telephone Thursday, Russian state-owned arms exporter
Rosoboronexport declined to comment on whether elements of the S-300
system had been successfully delivered to Syria.
The
shipment of the S-300s is a source of contention between Moscow and
Washington. Last week US Secretary of State John Kerry said the
presence of the anti-missile systems in Syria would be
“destabilizing” for the region.
Russian
officials publicly refuse to confirm or deny the S-300 deliveries,
but argue that they would be legal under international law and would
help to contain the Syrian conflict.
Steps
such as the delivery of S-300s are restraining some "hot heads"
from turning the Syrian conflict into an international conflict with
the participation of outside forces, Ryabkov said Tuesday.
S-300
missile systems, which are capable of simultaneously tracking up to
100 targets while engaging 12 at a range of up to 200 kilometers and
a height of up to 27 kilometers, could dramatically raise the risks
of a potential airstrike against Syrian targets.
Israeli
jets have reportedly launched attacks on Syria, including the capital
Damascus, several times this year. Tel Aviv said recent strikes in
May were targeted at weapons being transferred to Hezbollah in
Lebanon, according to Western news agencies.
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