Syria plans to run a country-wide drill to help plan for a national emergency in the coming days, similar to that which Israel ran this week. The exercise's stated objective is to test the country's readiness for "natural catastrophes and other emergency situations."
The exercise will include the army, emergency forces, and more. Also to be tested is the extent of the fulfillment of instructions by the public.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Feisal Mikdad took the opportunity to belittle the national exercise run by Israel this week. "The Israelis claim," he said, "that via these exercises, they will be able to fulfill their goals; they persuade themselves that we will be defeated in a future war. If Syria was the target of their exercise, we will keep track of the developments, and prepare ourselves and our plans in order to deal with the Israeli maneuvers."
Speaking with a Syrian newspaper, Mikdad said that Israel's goal was to "restore public trust in the army, implement the Winograd Report recommendations, and increase deterrence vis-a-vis Lebanon and the Arab world. But the Israelis forget that every war develops differently... They must remember that every plan [of theirs] has a counter-plan." He said that the Arabs are studying the changes in Israel's war philosophy.