So this is why Obama armed the rebels? To get get another one over Israel? x-army chief Halutz: Israel prefers Assad over Islamists in Syria

Halutz is quoted by Maariv as saying prospect of Al-Qaida affiliated elements ruling Damascus would be more problematic.

ar Assad to remain in power rather than see radical Islamist forces take control in Syria, the former army chief of staff is quoted in Wednesday editions of the daily tabloid Maariv as saying.

Dan Halutz, who served as IDF chief of staff during the 2006 military campaign in Lebanon, told a gathering in Moscow that the prospect of Al-Qaida affiliated elements ruling Damascus in place of the Assad regime would be more problematic from Jerusalem’s standpoint.

It is worth noting that the Israeli government’s official position is that it is not intervening on behalf of any of the warring parties in Syria, where the civil war has reportedly claimed the lives of over 100,000 people. While Halutz does not hold a formal government title, his statement is considered unusual given his access to – and familiarity with - the highest levels of Israel’s political and military establishment.“The regime in Syria is killing its citizens on a daily basis, but we need to admit that the opposition in Syria is comprised primarily of very extremist Muslims like Al-Qaida,” the former IDF chief is quoted as saying in Maariv. “The question that needs to be asked is, ‘What is good for Israel?’ It’s an important question, because we need to ask ourselves if we want to replace this bad regime with a very bad regime which we don’t know. And this is something that we need to seriously consider.”

Speaking at a fundraising event held in Moscow for the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Halutz mentioned last Saturday’s roadside bomb attack which caused damage to an IDF patrol jeep in the northern Golan Heights, the first such incident to take place in 40 years.

“That’s just a small indication of what will happen if these extremists come to power,” the former IDF chief said. “As of now, it appears that the international community understands that they cannot unseat the Assad regime as long as they do not know what will follow. Right now, it looks as if the alternative [to Assad] is a regime that would destabilize regional security.”

Halutz's statements seem to contradict those made by Israel's former ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, who told The Jerusalem Post earlier this year that “bad guys” backed by Iran are worse for Israel than “bad guys” who are not supported by the Islamic Republic.

In a parting interview with the Post, Oren traced the evolution of Israel’s message on Syria during the three weeks of the chemical weapons crisis.

“The initial message about the Syrian issue was that we always wanted [President] Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran,” he said.

This was the case, he said, even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated to al-Qaida.

“We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” he said, adding that this designation did not apply to everyone in the Syrian opposition. “Still, the greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc. That is a position we had well before the outbreak of hostilities in Syria. With the outbreak of hostilities we continued to want Assad to go.”

Oren reiterated Israel’s position that it would not tolerate attempts to transfer chemical arms -which are currently in the process of being dismantled by the OPCW – to Hezbollah.

“The chemical weapons were an American red line, it wasn’t an Israel red line,” Oren said. “Our red line was that if Iran and Syria try to convey chemical weapons or game changing weaponry to Hezbollah or other terrorist organizations, that Israel would not remain passive. We were prepared to stand by the red line, and still are.”

Jeruselam post 

So Assad calls the shots, Russia delivers them and America falls -Obamas legacy more like

The Russian bear and the American squirrel

Is it us or does reading through this mail online article give a slight hint that Russia now have all the clout while the US now has been reduced to a laughing stock, no thanks to the indecisive appeaser in chief Obama? 

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has appeared on Russian TV to say he will hand over his country's chemical weapons.

Speaking to Rossiya 24, the embattled dictator said that the move was due to the plan put forward by Russia, and not because of pressure from the US.

In an interview yet to be broadcast in full, Assad stated: 'Syria will accept [the Russian plan] if America stops military threats and if other countries supplying the rebels with chemical weapons also abide by the agreement.'

He added that only Russia could make the deal happen as 'Syria has neither contacts with, nor trust in, America.'

He insisted he would send chemical weapon documents to the UN, but made no mention of destroying those weapons.

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Thursday morning to test the seriousness of a Russian proposal to secure Syria's chemical weapons. 

Kerry and a team of US experts will have at least two days of meetings with their Russian counterparts on Thursday and Friday. 

They hope to emerge with an outline of how some 1,000 tons of chemical weapons stocks and precursor materials as well as potential delivery systems can be safely inventoried and isolated under international control in an active war zone and then destroyed. 

Officials with Kerry said they would be looking for a rapid agreement on principles for the process with Russians, including a demand for a speedy Syrian accounting of their stockpiles. 

One official said the task is ‘doable but difficult and complicated.’ 

The official said the US is looking for signs of Russian seriousness and thinks it will know in a relatively short time if the Russians are trying to stall. Another official described the ideas that the Russians have presented so far as ‘an opening position’ that needs a lot of work and input from technical experts. The US team includes officials who worked on inspection and removal of unconventional weapons from Libya after 2003 and in Iraq after the first Gulf War. 

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publically on the sensitive negotiations, said the teams that eventually go into Syria to do the work would have to have an international mix, as would their security. 

Kerry planned to meet with Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, before sitting down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. 

The hastily arranged meeting in Geneva comes as the White House tries to pin success or failure of the diplomatic track on Russia's willingness to take a tough line with its ally Syria. Syrian rebels, however, are disappointed at best in President Barack Obama's decision to forgo a military strike in favour of an agreement to take access to chemical weapons away from President Bashar Assad. 

At the same time, the CIA has begun delivering light weapons and other munitions to the rebels over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear, The Washington Post reported late Wednesday. The deliveries have lagged, the newspaper said, because of logistical challenges and US fears that any assistance could wind up in the hands of extremists. Some US lawmakers have chided the administration, which said months ago it would send lethal aid, for not moving more quickly to help the rebels. 

Obama also found opposition in Congress to putting on hold his request for authorization to punish Assad militarily for his government's alleged role in a chemical attack on Damascus suburbs last month. His Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, asserted in an opinion piece in The New York Times that a potential strike by the USwould create more victims and could spread the conflict beyond Syria and unleash a new wave of terrorism. 

In meetings planned for later Thursday and again Friday with Lavrov, Kerry will prod Moscow to put forward a credible and verifiable plan to inventory, quarantine and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stocks, according to US officials. 

Kerry is accompanied by American chemical weapons experts to look at and possibly expand on Russian ideas for the complex task of safely dealing with the vast stockpiles in the midst of a brutal and unpredictable conflict. Russian technical experts will join Lavrov in the meetings. 

‘Our goal here is to test the seriousness of this proposal, to talk about the specifics of how this would get done, what are the mechanics of identifying, verifying, securing and ultimately destroying the chemical weapons,’ State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said shortly before Kerry left Washington.

The US is hoping that an acceptable agreement with the Russians can be part of a binding new U.N. Security Council resolution being negotiated that would hold Syria accountable for using chemical weapons. Russia, however, has long opposed U.N. action on Syria, vetoed three earlier resolutions, blocked numerous, less severe condemnations and has not indicated it is willing to go along with one now.

A senior U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because contacts have been private, said Thursday's meeting will be an exploratory session to gauge whether they can embark on ‘the herculean task’ of dismantling Syria's chemical weapons while the country is at war. 

In his column posted Wednesday on the Times website, Putin asserted that it is ‘alarming’ that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries ‘has become commonplace for the United States.’ 

‘Is it in America's long-term interest? I doubt it,’ Putin wrote. ‘Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan `you're either with us or against us.’' 

Putin said he favoured taking advantage of Syria's willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control and welcomed Obama's interest in continuing to discuss Syria with Russia. 

‘If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust,’ he wrote. ‘It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.’ 

American ships in the Mediterranean Sea remained ready to strike Syria if ordered, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said. Syrian rebels appeared skeptical that US forces would be put to use, saying the Americans have repeatedly reneged on promises to assist their rebellion. They pointed to Obama's statement in June that he would provide lethal aid to the rebels. 

Meanwhile, Assad's forces have gained the advantage. 

‘We're on our own,’ Mohammad Joud, an opposition fighter in the war-shattered northern city of Aleppo, said via Skype. ‘I always knew that, but thanks to Obama's shameful conduct, others are waking up to this reality as well.’ 

Ayham Kamel, a Middle East analyst at the Eurasia Group in London, said the Syrian opposition will struggle with morale and sense of purpose. 

‘Assad's regime is going to be stronger because while they've agreed to give up their chemical weapons, they get to keep everything else to fight the opposition that has lost territory in the past year and has now suffered a big blow,’ Kamel said. 

White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to put a deadline on diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff but said bringing Syria's chemical weapons stockpile under international control ‘obviously will take some time.’ 

‘Russia is now putting its prestige on the line,’ Carney said Wednesday. Asked if US prestige also was on the line, Carney responded: ‘The United States leads in these situations. And it's not always popular and it's not always comfortable.’ 

On Capitol Hill, action on any congressional resolution authorizing US military intervention in Syria was on hold, even an alternative that would have reflected Russia's diplomatic offer. 

Senators instead debated an energy bill. 

‘The whole terrain has changed,’ Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters after a meeting of Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ‘We want to make sure we do nothing that's going to derail what's going on.’ 

That didn't stop Republicans from announcing their opposition to Obama's initial call for military strikes and criticizing the commander in chief. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., accused the president of engaging in ‘pinball diplomacy.’ 

Source 

Mail online

Syria Defector 'Exposes Assad Chemical Attack

A former Syrian forensic medicine expert has provided evidence that the Assad regime used chemical weapons, opposition forces say.

Abdeltawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic medicine committee in Aleppo, claims there was a chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, on March 19, said Istanbul-based opposition coalition spokeswoman Sarah Karkour.

Mr Shahrour, who has defected to Turkey, has documents proving the attack took place and eyewitness accounts from police authorities that contradicte the administration's version of events, a second opposition official said.

Both the government and rebels have blamed each other for what they say was an attack involving chemical weapons. More than two dozen people died.

Russia, which alongside Iran is Syria's closest ally and chief arms supplier, said in July its own scientific analysis indicated the attack had involved the nerve agent sarin and had most likely been carried out by the rebels.

Both sides deny using chemical weapons.

Dr Shahrour was expected to reveal the details of the attack during a press conference in Turkey but Syrian National Council spokesperson Khaled Saleh said he was unable to appear due to "security concerns".

Mr Saleh added that the national council has received information in the last few days that three government convoys were carrying chemical weapons and one had reached a military airport.

He said: "We have serious concerns based on the information that we have received from sources inside the Assad army who are sympathetic to the revolution that Assad might be considering using those chemical weapons against innocent civilians."

A team of UN experts who visited Syria last month to investigate allegations of chemicals weapons had originally planned to visit Khan al-Assal.

However, it ended up focusing on a much larger apparent poison gas attack which killed hundreds of civilians in suburbs of the capital Damascus on August 21.

The new opposition claims come as France bolstered calls for military action in Syria by saying it had evidence the regime was behind the "massive and co-ordinated" chemical attack in Damascus.

Syria's government called the allegations "illogical" and warned it would retaliate if France took military action.

The US government has also said evidence points to deadly sarin gas being used to kill 1,429 people in the August attack.

US President Barack Obama has been meeting political figures such as Senator John McCain as he tries to galvanise support for military strikes ahead of a debate in Congress.

Sources

Sky News 

Arming Rebels May Give Al Qaeda Missiles that Can Down Israeli Plane

Saudi Arabia plans to supply Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles the same time reports have surfaced that Al Qaeda already has their hands on similar missiles that are to be used against the Syrian Air Force but also can be turned against Israeli planes.

SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles - 

who will use them first, Al Qaeda or Hezbollah?

A classified report received by the German foreign intelligence service referred to by Der Spiegel Sunday states that the Saudi kingdom wants to arm rebels with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles can target low-flying aircraft including helicopters. Saudi Arabia has in mind to send rebels the European-made Mistral-class MANPADS, an acronym for man-portable air-defense systems.

Arming Syrian rebels negates to a certain extent Israel’s efforts to stymie the sale of Russian SA-300 anti-aircraft missiles, one of the most advanced in the world.

Israel may have kept anti-aircraft missiles out of the hands of Assad, but they are destined for both Al Qaeda and Hezbollah, which presumably already has more than few.

The Obama administration’s green light for arming rebels gave Saudi Arabia the go-ahead to send them anti-aircraft missiles. They clearly are intended to defend the rebels against the Syrian Air Force, but what happens if Hezbollah captures the weapons?

The Obama administration no doubt took into consideration that terrorist organizations have easy access to rebels’ weapons.

His official’s belated conclusion that Syrian President Bashar Assad has been using chemical weapons against Syrians perhaps left him with no choice but to lift his objections to arming rebels.

But the day-after could be disastrous.

The SA-7 missile does not come close to the SA-300 in terms of sophistication, but the downing of one Israeli aircraft by terrorists would be catastrophic from all aspects.

Besides the loss of lives, it would fuel to no end the Arab urge to annihilate Israel. Israel would have no choice but to retaliate whether in Syria in Lebanon, with the possible escalation on the side of Hezbollah and Iran.

Several defense systems have been tested to protest airplanes from the SA-7 missile, but the weapon’s heat-sinking technology would hone in on an airplane engine once the targeted craft tries to intercept the missiles.

This can be overcome by the anti-missile missile’s sending out high-temperature flares to lure the missile away from the plane. The defense system is said to be 90-percent effective, and that other 10 percent could be the catalyst for a regional war.

The Associated Press reported last week that manuals for using the missiles were discovered by France in Al Qaeda’s offices in Mali. The same missiles are believed to be in Iraq Somalia and Afghanistan, many of them having been smuggled out of Libya during the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi.

The United States previously tried to keep the MANPADs out of the hands of terrorists. The United States was so worried about this particular weapon ending up in the hands of terrorists that the State Department set up a task force to track and destroy it as far back as 2006.

Terrorists in Kenya fired them at a plane full of Israel tourists in 2002, but the missiles missed their target, possibly due to lack of training.

The SA-7 anti-aircraft missile has been used against more than 40 civilian airplanes in the past four decades, causing more than 800 deaths, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The manuals in Al Qaeda’s hands might overcome that hurdle.

The SA-7 weighs only 30 pounds and can be packed into a duffel bag.  The total time required to fire the missile is six seconds.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/arming-rebels-may-give-al-qaeda-missiles-to-down-israeli-plane/2013/06/17/