If Israel Attacks, Arab World Retaliates

A new war may start between Israel and Arab countries in the near future, Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Walid al-Moallem stated after a meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Photo: If Israel Attacks, Arab World Retaliates

Moallem particularly stated that a new war in the Middle East would not be a small local war, but a large-scale armed conflict. “There will be no peace talks after that war,” he said.

The war will begin in case Israel does not agree upon the conditions of fair and stable peace.

"Israel plants the atmosphere of war in the region….Syria calls on Israel to halt directing threats once against Gaza, another against South Lebanon, then Iran and now Syria," the Syrian foreign minister said.

"Israel should not test Syria's determination… Israel knows that war will move to the Israeli cities….Israel has to commit to the just and comprehensive peace requirements," he added.

To put it in a nutshell, if Israel dares to attack Syria or Lebanon, several countries of the region will stand up against the Jewish State.

Syrian President Bashar Assad supported the head of his nation’s foreign ministry and said that Israel was the prime reason of conflicts in the Middle East.

The bellicose statements were voiced in response to quite peaceful statement from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack. He said that Israel would be ready to conclude peace with Syria since the absence of such an agreement may trigger a new war in the Middle East.

Spain ’s Foreign Minister arrived in Syria from Israel.

“I arrived from Israel after a meeting with the administration of this country, and I can tell you that I could only see peaceful intentions there,” the bewildered official told his Syrian counterpart.

On February 4, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that Syria should not threaten Syria with war.

“Assad needs to know that if he provokes Israel, he will fall from power. I hope the message will be well understood in Damascus,” Lieberman said at a conference near Tel Aviv.

Afterwards, Lieberman addressed to the Syrian president personally:

“You will not only lose. You will lose the war, and you will lose your power – you and your family,” he said. He added that Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, stayed in power only after he agreed for peace talks with Israel.

Israel and Syria presumably fight about the Golan Heights, which Israel won in the war in 1967. Lieberman and his followers claim that the Heights historically belong to Jews. Syria says that the Golan Heights officially became a part of Syria in 1944 when French colonizers signed adequate agreements before leaving the area.

Yevgeny Minchenko, the director of the International Institute for Political Expertise believes that a combat action in the Middle East can start any moment.

“I am a pessimist when it comes to the issue of more or less long-term peace in this region. I do not share Obama’s views about the possibility to solve the problems of the region peacefully in the foreseeable future,” the specialist told Pravda.Ru.

“At the same time, I do not see any conditions for the conflict between Syria and Israel to develop into a large-scale war. Even if Israel attacks one of the Arab world countries, it will not make everyone else stand up against Israel,” Minchenko said.

“The Americans will not let Syria strike Israel, their strategic ally in the Middle East,” he added.

It is worthy of note that Egypt, which used to lead many Arab anti-Israeli forces, now develops partnership relations and cooperates with Israel in the struggle against Palestinian terrorism.

Sergey Demchenko, a former military advisor of the USSR in Egypt and Syria, said that Arabs are bad warriors.

“Arabs are weak as warriors. Their whole units would panic and run away once they would spot an Israeli combat aircraft during the war in 1973. They would drop their anti-aircraft systems and just scatter. It would be enough for someone to scream “Phantom!” (US-made F-4 aircraft of the Israeli Army) to make Arab soldiers run away and hide like cockroaches,” Demchenko said.

“Syrian troops are very adventurous. The ammunition packages which they would take along were enough for only one hour of battle in spite of the fact that they could have any weapons they needed from the USSR. Those of our specialists who currently work in Syria say that the military efficiency of Syrian troops is still very low,” he added.

Nowadays, Syria has neither military help, nor erstwhile allies.

Sergey Balmasov
Pravda.Ru

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