Photo by: Ministry of Defense
By JPOST.COM STAFF
13/04/2010 17:48
Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to reports that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to Hizbullah on Tuesday, saying “the escalation in Lebanon seems to be a blatant violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Israel threatened to bomb Syria if it supplies Hizbullah with Scud missiles. “We have no aggressive intentions towards Lebanon,” Barak said on a visit to the Tel Hashomer IDF base, stressing that “we expect and recommend that everyone remain peaceful in the North.”
He emphasized that “bringing in systems that upset the balance [of power] endanger our stability and peace.”
According to the newspaper Al-Rai, Assad has already given the Lebanese terror organization advanced Scud missiles that can reach any part of Israel. American intelligence sources discovered a weapons transfer from Syria to Hizbullah at the end of last year, which they called “unusual and dangerous.”
The intelligence sources explained that not only did the advanced-weapons transfer threaten regional stability, but it also undermined the new Lebanese government’s sovereignty.
As a result, and in an effort to prevent a new conflict, the US State Department reportedly summoned the Syrian ambassador in Washington, Imad Mustafa, and warned him that war could break out if the weapons shipments were not stopped.
The ambassador denied any transferal of strategic weapons from Syria to Lebanon.
The newspaper added that the transfer prompted a stern Israeli warning that it would consider attacking both Syrian and Lebanese targets in response.
At the same time, according to the Wall Street Journal, the IDF came very close recently to attacking a convoy carrying weapons from Syria to Lebanon, but at the last moment decided against it.
