Ehud Olmert, acting Prime Minister while PM Ariel Sharon is absent, accused Syrian President Assad of directly ordering terror attacks while using words of reconciliation to garner favorable world opinion. “President Assad calls for negotiations from one side of his mouth, and from the other side issues orders from Damascus to murder Israeli children,” acting PM Olmert told Arutz 7 correspondent Moshe Friyal today.
Friyal asked Minister Olmert why Israel is hesitant in accepting Syria’s call for a resumption of negotiations. Olmert answered that, “At the same time that President Assad called for negotiations, he sent terrorists, who receive their orders directly from Damascus, to kill schoolchildren in Israel. From the very beginning the Government of Israel announced that President Assad’s overture is not viewed seriously unless it is followed by positive actions. We have yet to see any.”
Recent actions out of Syria have actually pointed towards an increase in hostility, with a report revealed today stating that Syria has launched an effort to purchase a large quantity of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. Syria has long sought to obtain large quantities of the compact weapon, which has increasingly become the terrorist-weapon of choice for shooting down aircrafts. Syrian intelligence, through middlemen, has recently succeeded in locating a supplier in the former Soviet Union and is in the process of procuring a large quantity of the shoulder-launched missiles.
Jerusalem and Washington are both exceedingly concerned about the missiles reaching Hezbolla and terrorist elements in Iraq. The CIA and Mossad are reportedly trying to torpedo the Syrian effort.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, asked in an October interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper if he would honor the US and Israeli demand to crack down on terrorist leaders based in Damascus said, “These people have broken no Syrian laws, have harmed no Syrian interests, and, first and foremost, [they] are not terrorists."
Friyal asked Minister Olmert why Israel is hesitant in accepting Syria’s call for a resumption of negotiations. Olmert answered that, “At the same time that President Assad called for negotiations, he sent terrorists, who receive their orders directly from Damascus, to kill schoolchildren in Israel. From the very beginning the Government of Israel announced that President Assad’s overture is not viewed seriously unless it is followed by positive actions. We have yet to see any.”
Recent actions out of Syria have actually pointed towards an increase in hostility, with a report revealed today stating that Syria has launched an effort to purchase a large quantity of shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. Syria has long sought to obtain large quantities of the compact weapon, which has increasingly become the terrorist-weapon of choice for shooting down aircrafts. Syrian intelligence, through middlemen, has recently succeeded in locating a supplier in the former Soviet Union and is in the process of procuring a large quantity of the shoulder-launched missiles.
Jerusalem and Washington are both exceedingly concerned about the missiles reaching Hezbolla and terrorist elements in Iraq. The CIA and Mossad are reportedly trying to torpedo the Syrian effort.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, asked in an October interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper if he would honor the US and Israeli demand to crack down on terrorist leaders based in Damascus said, “These people have broken no Syrian laws, have harmed no Syrian interests, and, first and foremost, [they] are not terrorists."