Report: a state of alert in Syria
Syria-Israel, Politics, 5/21/2001

The Qatari daily al-Watan issued on Saturday said that a state of alert exists in Syria.

The paper quoted military analysts as saying that Damascus has threatened to strongly and directly and painfully answer in case it is exposed to a new Israeli aggression and that the Syria Ballistic missiles of Skud systems are ready to strike Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Syria has also put her forces in a state of alert, held live ammunition exercises and several official dates and daily meetings were canceled from the official works and the Syrian leadership has dedicated all its time to follow up the developments of conditions in Lebanon with the increase of warnings arrived in Damascus from several Arab and international capitals that Sharon is about to launch a flagrant aggression against Syria and Lebanon.

The paper added that Arab and international circles ruled out that Israel will think of attacking strategic positions inside Syria and to be limited to attack the Syrian forces working in Lebanon.

A Syrian diplomatic source said that Israel tries to drag Syria into a sort of power test to achieve two objectives: the first to limit the direct Syrian influence on the Intifada and the second is to " dig a nail" in the relations between Syria and Lebanon.

A Syrian source told the paper that Sharon wants to keep the state of tension with Syria on its peak in order to pressure the Syrian leadership, while the well-informed Syrian source unveiled that Syria received a proposal from Sharon through European mediators states that Damascus stops to back Hizbullah and the Intifada, permitting the Lebanese army to be deployed in South Lebanon, against the return back for negotiations, recognizing Damascus's role in Lebanon and discussing practical steps to withdraw from the Golan, noting that the Syrian leadership refused this offer.

Previous Stories:
  Bin Aleazer: Israel will not attack Hizbullah, rather Syria   (5/17/2001)
  The strategic studies center on Syria and Israel   (5/17/2001)
  Israel threatens Syria   (5/16/2001)

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