US rebukes Syria over scud transfer
On Monday, the US called in Syria's ranking diplomat in Washington, Deputy Chief of Mission Zouheir Jabbour, to "review Syria’s provocative behavior concerning the potential transfer of arms to Hizballah." "This was the fourth occasion on which these concerns have been raised to the Syrian Embassy in recent months, intended to further amplify our messages communicated to the Syrian government. Our dialogue with Syria on this issue has been frank and sustained. We expect the same in return."I'm sure Baby Assad is quaking in his boots. Arutz Sheva notes:
The diplomatic rebuke came after reports said the U.S. believed Syria intended to transfer Scud missiles to Hezbollah, but isn't clear if the missiles were actually shipped to Lebanon.
"The United States condemns in the strongest terms the transfer of any arms, and especially ballistic missile systems such as the SCUD, from Syria to Hizballah," Duguid said. "The transfer of these arms can only have a destabilizing effect on the region, and would pose an immediate threat to both the security of Israel and the sovereignty of Lebanon."
"The risk of miscalculation that could result from this type of escalation should make Syria reverse the ill-conceived policy it has pursued in providing arms to Hizballah," he continued.
"We call for an immediate cessation of any arms transfers to Hizballah and other terrorist organizations in the region," Duguid said. "Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism is directly related to its support for terrorist groups, such as Hizbollah."
The statement stopped short of confirming the reports, which Syria has denied, but a senior U.S. official told Reuters that it was a sign that the allegations were being taken seriously, explaining, "We wouldn't have called them in if we didn't think something was going on."But of course, by refusing to confirm the transfers, the State Department avoids having to use that magic word 'condemn' that they used with respect to the administrative approval for the apartments in Ramat Shlomo last month. Kind of amazing, isn't it? The State Department condemns Israel for announcing an administrative approval in Jerusalem, condemns 'any' transfer of ballistic missiles (as if they're equivalent), but refuses to confirm any arms transfer by the Syrians so that the State Department doesn't have to 'condemn' them. Barry Rubin calls it "better late than never." I think it's too weak to rate even that label.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:11 PM
4 Comments:
Its not really a serious response to the violation and if a mild reprimand is all Damascus has to face from Washington, the cost of arming Hezbollah with advanced weapons is truly negligible. Baby Assad can live with the diplomatic equivalent of a light slap on the wrist and continue in his ways.
I'm just reading these things in utter befuddlement. So it is looking like the IDF is going to just sit quietly and spend all their non-field time addressing each Goldstone detail re Gaza... and never put together info on rockets shot at random civilian areas in Israel? They are going to neglect this angle right up to the point where scuds land on Tel Aviv????
NormanF
During all the talk by Bush of shunning the "baby," the baby got away with ACTUAL murder. The greatest strongest nation on the planet did nothing.
Toothless condemnations in the form of all talk but no action to one of the most ruthless terrorist regimes on the planet only served to embolden Assad.
So Obama wished to 'dialogue' and use appeasement/diplomacy and Bush used "backdoor dialogue" while condemning with no consequences.
I hear the baby has quite a healthy laugh. No wonder.
They all play us for fools!
(fools without teeth) All talk no action makes us a laughing stock.
Actually, according to our friends at Reuters, the State Department did "condemn" the transfer, although there appears to be some confusion as to whether the transfer can be confirmed. Curious how State would condemn an "alleged" event.
http://r-mew.blogspot.com/2010/04/did-they-or-didnt-they.html
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