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Israel 'making excuses for war'
29/09/2007 20:36 - (SA)
Damascus - Syria accused Israel on
Saturday of making excuses for war by spreading what it
described as false reports that an Israeli air raid targeted a
site linked to weapons of mass destruction.
Syrian Deputy President Farouq al-Shara said his country did
not want war "in the distant or near future".
"They (Israel) are making up things to justify an aggression
in the future. They are playing on public opinion to mislead
it," he said, describing the reports as fabrications.
"Everything reported about this raid is wrong and is part of
a psychological warfare that will not fool Syria," Shara told
reporters after meeting his Iraqi counterpart Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Damascus says Israel launched the air raid on September 6,
bombing an empty area after air defence systems confronted the
aircraft. Some US officials have linked the raid to apparent
Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear co-operation between
Damascus and North Korea.
Diplomats in Damascus say at least four Israeli warplanes
crossed deep into Syria in this month's operation. They suggest
the intended target may have involved missiles supplied by North
Korea but played down reports of a nuclear link.
Israel has said nothing about the raid, which Shara said
caused no casualties. Damascus and North Korea have denied any
nuclear co-operation.
Shara said the raid also was aimed at boosting the morale of
the Israeli military, which failed to crush the Lebanese
movement Hezbollah, an ally of Syria, in last year's war.
"They want to rehabilitate the Israeli army after the
Lebanese resistance broke it. But what Israel needs is to
rehabilitate the Israeli mind, only then will a real opportunity
for genuine peace be created," he said.
Syria and Israel are formally at war. Peace talks between
them collapsed in 2000 over the scope of an Israeli pull-out from
the Golan Heights, a plateau which the Jewish state captured
from Syria in 1967.
The United States, Israel's chief ally, has said it would
invite Syria to an international conference in November to try
to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Shara said the meeting would not succeed without pressure on
Israel to withdraw from all the Arab land it occupied in 1967 in
exchange for peace, including the Golan.
"Anything else and the meeting will be worthless," he said.
"We don't need more photo opportunities."
- Reuters
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