Spiegel: Syria will enter war if Israel invades Lebanon

[mogster]

- We will not sit still and watch Israel invade Lebanon, says Syrian information minister Mohsen Bilal to der Spiegel.
- Syria will no doubt enter the conflict if Israel invades, he says.
(...)
The Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz wants a Nato-led peace keeping force at the border with Lebanon, after having a meeting with German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, according to AP

Sorry, no English link yet.
(NO):
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2006/07/23/472061.html
(D):
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,428094,00.html

[AnOhioan]

1. Syria will join conflict if Israeli troops approach

MADRID, July 23 (Reuters) - Syria will enter the Israeli-Hizbollah conflict if Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon and approach Syria, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview published on Sunday.

"If Israel invades Lebanon over ground and comes near to us, Syria will not sit tight. She will join the conflict," he told newspaper ABC.

Found at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23898146.htm

Entire text posted

[leesa]

2. PNAC/Israel will get what they have lusted after and your kids will get

to die for it. It's all a pre-planned game.

[cali]

10. As I am so often inspired to say here

Simple is as simple does, and it doesn't do very well at all when it comes to complex geopolitical matters.

[zonkers]

3. Hello....Syria. Israel has already entererd Lebanon.

[lonestarnot]

5. hmmmf.

yes.

[FloridaPat]

7. Yes, I thought I saw that this last week.

[TomClash]

4. I don't read German well

but I think the Spiegel version of the story omits "the approaching Syria" requirement.

[Easy]

9. No, it's there

Falls Israel Bodentruppen in den Libanon schicke oder Syrien zu Nahe komme, "wird Syrien nicht still sitzen. Wir werden uns dann am Konflikt beteiligen", sagte Bilal weiter.

translates roughly to

"If Israel sends ground troops into Lebanon or comes too close to Syria, we will not sit idly by. We will enter the conflict," Bilal continued.

~Easy

[TomClash]

14. Oops, you're right nt

[Yupster]

16. Approaching Syria?

They already directly border each other. Can't get much more approaching than they already are.

[Eugene]

6. A different take: Syria Says Will Urge Mideast Cease-Fire (AP)

Syria Says Will Urge Mideast Cease-Fire

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 23, 2006; 10:34 AM

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria, one of Hezbollah's main backers, said Sunday it will press
for a cease-fire to end the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group
but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative.

Damascus warned, however, that it will not stand by if the Israelis step up their
offensive in Lebanon.

"Syria and Spain are working to achieve a cease-fire, a prisoners' swap and to start
a peace process as one package," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told
the Spanish daily newspaper ABC during an interview in Madrid.

<snip>

"If Israel invades Lebanon and enters it by land, then it will be only about 12 miles
from Damascus, then we will not stand with our hands tied," Bilal said.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/23/AR2006072300172.html

[MrPrax]

8. We have a winner...

I'll go for the optimistic tone of this piece...it seems more 'Sunday-ish'.

[Toots]

11. Why NATO instead of the UN and is Israel even a part of NATO?

How did NATO get to become the world's police force?

[oberliner]

13. UNIFIL

How do you think UNIFIL has been handling it so far?

[daleo]

18. They are a relatively small force, and their mission was as observers

It's not really fair to blame them, given the limited parameters of their mission and limited capability.

I don't know how well a NATO force would do, in practice. It would depend a lot on where the troops were from and how the command structure was set up. Anything that smacked of U.S. involvement would probably go bad quite quickly. The people in South Lebanon would not see U.S. troops as neutral.

But something has to be done to keep the two sides apart.

[lebkuchen]

19. Sounds like Germany will be put in the position of firing on Jews

as necessary. There's a giant step backward.

The mind boggles when it comes to Bushy incompetence.

[daleo]

21. I hadn't thought of that

It may be best to avoid that possibility. Who's left?
- U.K. wouldn't be trusted, same as U.S. (Iraq invasion, among other things).
- France might be acceptable, although their colonial history in Lebanon could be a problem.
- Nordic countries, maybe ok but there is that Danish cartoon thing.
- Spain & Portugal, maybe ok but Israel is accusing the Spanish government of anti-semitism.
- Italy, maybe ok but colonial history and complications due to the Vatican being in Rome might come up.
- Canada, probably ok but kind of busy with the Afghanistan disaster.
- and so on.

It will be difficult finding troops with the credibility for the job (political and military).

[allemand]

12. Spiegel lost in translation: "will join conflict if IDF approaches Syria"

Syrian minister: We will join conflict if IDF approaches Syria
By News Agencies

MADRID - Syria will enter the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah if Israel Defense Forces ground troops enter Lebanon and approach Syria, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview published on Sunday.

"If Israel invades Lebanon over ground and comes near to us, Syria will not sit tight. She will join the conflict," he told newspaper ABC.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741719.html

-Israel ha movilizado 5.000 soldados reservistas y parece estar en marcha una incursión por tierra en el Líbano. ¿Sigue siendo la postura de Siria la de no participar en el conflicto?

-Si Israel entra en el Líbano por vía terrestre, pueden llegar a situarse a veinte kilómetros de Damasco, ¿qué vamos a hacer, quedarnos de brazos cruzados? Absolutamente no. Sin duda, Siria intervendrá en el conflicto. Esto no significa que Siria esté dando la bienvenida al conflicto; trabajamos con España para conseguir un alto el fuego. Pero si las tropas israelíes nos provocan, Damasco actuará para garantizar la seguridad nacional del territorio sirio.

http://www.abc.es/20060723/internacional-oriente-medio/israel-invade-libano-siria_200607230245.html

In other words: don't come too close to Damascus.

[ContraBass Black]

17. That's pretty important.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Andromeda]

20. Uh, it's a little late for that.

Speigel is just posturing.