UN chief gravely concerned by report of Israeli air strike in Syria

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

UN chief gravely concerned by report of Israeli air strike in Syria
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:26 GMT
Source: reuters // Reuters
(Adds detail)

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 31 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern" on Thursday over reports that Israeli jets bombed an apparent convoy of weapons near the Lebanese border and urged respect for the sovereignty of countries in the region.

Diplomats, Syrian rebels and regional security sources said on Wednesday that Israeli jets bombed a convoy near the Lebanese border, apparently hitting weapons destined for militant group Hezbollah. Syria denied the reports, saying the target of the air strikes had been a military research center northwest of Damascus.

"The Secretary-General notes with grave concern reports of Israeli air strikes in Syria," Ban's press office said in a statement. "At this time, the United Nations does not have details of the reported incident. Nor is the United Nations in a position to independently verify what has occurred."

"The Secretary-General calls on all concerned to prevent tensions or their escalation in the region, and to strictly abide by international law, in particular in respect of ... sovereignty of all countries in the region," the statement said.


Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/un-chief-gravely-concerned-by-report-of-israeli-air-strike-in-syria

[iandhr]

1. Paging Dr. Strangelove

[aquart]

2. "Military research center"?

Researching WHAT, please?

And WHY wouldn't Syrian gov't admit an attack on a Hezbullah convoy? Why pinpoint research labs instead?

Odd.

[L0oniX]

3. This is just a test to see how it goes ...before they bomb Iran. n/t

[wellspring]

5. Israel doesn't need to fly to neighboring Syria to test bombing Iran.

They already flew bombers all the way to Sudan last year to intercept arms to Hamas.

[L0oniX]

6. No No No ...it's a test to see how other countries react to their actions. n/t

[wellspring]

7. Not very likely. Obama already privately gave Israel green light on the Syria bombing.

They got a green light in advance of the operation and that's why Israeli officials were sent ahead of time to talk to US officials. Moreover, all indications are that there was intelligence coordination ahead of time on many levels. It doesn't look like there was any "testing."

For instance, initially there was a cover story put out that it was a convoy headed to Lebanon that was hit. The aim of this was to limit the media frenzy and thereby put less pressure on Syria and its allies for a retaliation. Israel was clearly trying not to rub the attack in Syria's nose, even though they did what they had to do since there were unconventional weapons that were hit.

There was also a story a few days earlier, a false story, that Israel had sabotaged the Fordo nuclear site in Iran. It appears that the CIA was in on this false story. My theory is that this was intended to make the media shy about publicizing such reports until they had better confirmation, and the real objective was not to overly publicize the impending bombing of the Syrian site.

For the record, when Israel bombed a Syrian nuclear site around 2007, there was no media coverage of it at all for weeks. Nobody wanted to admit anything, not the Syrians and not the Russians, whose air defenses in Syria proved impotent. Syria fired not a shot against the invading Israeli aircraft. They had been completely blinded. At the same time cell phone service as far away as Lebanon had been knocked out for several hours, indicating that there was a cyber component to Israel's disabling of Syria's sophisticated Russian radar and missile defenses as they bombed the Syrian nuclear site (in 2007).

Just saying that this latest Israeli operation in Syria was a test of something larger may sound nice and it may fit some paradigm but the facts speak otherwise. The operation was against chemical weapons stocks that were in danger of being used against Israel and the operation stands on its own.

[L0oniX]

8. Well that's nice about Obama however the term "other" countries is not just the USA. n/t

[zellie]

4. Grave concern ??

Well that's so nice.

Good way to keep your job , Ban .

Never mind transferring missiles to Hezbollah . Never mind the death that could happened of innocent Israelis .

Flashback kofi.