Israel Raises Demands on Syria Over Hizbollah

14/04/2003| IslamWeb

Israel added to U.S. pressure on Syria to change its ways on Monday, publicizing a list of demands that included the removal of Syrian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas from southern Lebanon. "We have a long list of issues that we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and it is proper that it should be done through the Americans," Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Israel's Maariv daily. "It starts from removing the Hizbollah threat from southern Lebanon," he said, calling for the dismantling of the group whose daily attacks on Israeli forces in a cross-border zone occupied since 1978 led to their withdrawal in 2000.

Israel has long charged that Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, has served as a conduit for Iranian arms shipments to Hizbollah, including long-range surface-to-surface missiles. Hizbollah is on the U.S. list of activist organizations.

In the interview, Mofaz said Israel wanted the missiles moved out of striking range of the Jewish state along with "an end to Iranian aid to Hizbollah through Syrian ports."

Syria, the hawkish defense chief said, must also stop allowing the resistance Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to use Damascus as their headquarters. The two groups have carried out dozens of resistance bombings in Israel since the start in September 2000 of a Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Mofaz did not make any direct threat of military action against Syria in the interview, due to be published in full on Wednesday.

The Israeli and Syrian armies last clashed on the battlefield during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Israeli-Syrian peace talks in the United States three years ago ended in impasse over the future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz. (AFP/File/Sven Nackstrand).