Dagan: Syria more willing now than ever to attack Israel

Dec. 18, 2006 16:04 Updated Dec. 18, 2006 19:26
Dagan: Syria willing to attack Israel
By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL

Mossad chief Meir Dagan reading a report on Iran. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski


Despite Syria's peace overtures it is "more willing now than ever before" to take military action against Israel, Mossad Chief Meir Dagan told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Dagan said that following Israel's war with Lebanon, Syria felt more secure and confident in having its own personal confrontation with Israel.

He went on to say that the Syrian army was building up its anti-tank missile units, after having seen that this was Israel's Achilles' heel in the Second Lebanon War. He also told the committee that Syria was secretly buying stocks of anti-tank missiles from Russia.

Dagan stressed that the condition was so volatile that if Israel were to send a warning signal to Syrian President Bashar Assad - as it did in June when IAF jets buzzed his summer palace while he was present - this would be reason enough for Syria to wage war.

Dagan reminded the FADC that Assad's modus operandi was to "whip out a white rabbit of a peace overture" to dispel international pressure coming from the US.

In fact, said Dagan, on Sunday, when Foreign Minister Walid Moallem was interviewed by The Washington Post, saying that Syria was willing to start negotiations without preconditions, the Arab press printed the exact opposite; that Syria would not return to the negotiation table.

Dagan summarized the Syria enigma by saying that the Israeli government had no reason to believe that Syria was making any real moves towards peace.

The next most pressing issue on Israel's agenda, Dagan said, was the Iranian nuclear threat.

"Iran is approaching nuclear ability. The Iranian president wants 3000 centrifugal processors in bunkers by March 2007."

However, Dagan asserted that the Mossad did not believe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was capable of meeting the deadline, saying that the Mossad believed it would take until the end of 2007.

He explained that if there were "no sanctions on Iran and no technological holdups," by 2008 Iran would have 25 kilograms of enriched uranium and by 2009-2010 they would already have nuclear warheads.

Dagan finished his address by saying that the Iraq civil war was "dangerous" and that the day the US left, Iraq would go back to being an Islamic extremist state, which would be "a geopolitical change that will harm Israel."

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