Meir Dagan at Jerusalem Post Conference
Meir Dagan at Jerusalem Post ConferenceJerusalem Post

Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said on Sunday that there was no immediate threat to Israel from Syria.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York, Dagan said that the reason for this is that the Syrians are currently “preoccupied with internal matters”.

He added that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad had managed to fool the world by convincing the West that he was seeking peace, but that in reality he was strengthening terror groups in the region. The eyes of the Americans were only opened to Assad’s true intentions, said Dagan, when the civil war in the country began and thousands of civilians were slaughtered.

“If I have to make a prediction, I don’t consider the fact that countries like Egypt and Libya, that were taken over by Islamic regimes, are becoming an immediate threat,” said Dagan.

“Looking over a short period of time, I would agree with Mr. Olmert that I don’t see an immediate conventional threat to Israel,” he added.

The Iranian threat is a very serious one, said the former Mossad chief, as well as the issue of terrorism, which he said Israel “has a good ability” to deal with.