ISRAEL’S FOREIGN minister Avigdor Lieberman issued an unprecedented threat against Syria yesterday, warning President Bashar Assad that a new war would lead to the end of his regime.
Mr Lieberman said recent comments by Syrian leaders had crossed a red line and would not be tolerated by Israel. In the event of a new Middle East conflict, he warned the Syrian leader “not only will you lose the war, you and your family will no longer be in power”.
Mr Lieberman’s comments, in a speech at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan university, came a day after Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem warned that Israeli cities will be attacked in the event of a war, and remarks by Mr Assad that Israel was pushing the region towards war.
The Israeli foreign minister, who heads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, also warned against Israeli territorial concessions on the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 6-Day Arab-Israeli war. “We must make Syria recognise that just as it relinquished its dream of a greater Syria that controls Lebanon . . . it will have to relinquish its ultimate demand regarding the Golan Heights.”
In response to Mr Lieberman’s comments, Syrian foreign affairs committee chairman Suleiman Hadad said that Damascus was convinced Israel was not interested in peace.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has turned a blind eye in the past to controversial comments by his outspoken foreign minister, who is considered somewhat of a maverick in diplomatic circles. But yesterday he felt obliged to act, speaking to Mr Lieberman and issuing a joint statement in an effort to set the record straight.
“We pursue peace and negotiations with Syria, without preconditions, while Israel will continue to act with force and determination against any threats,” the statement read.
Mr Netanyahu also ordered all ministers to refrain from making public comments about relations with Syria.
But the foreign minister’s threat was criticised by many in Israel.
Alon Liel, the former foreign ministry director-general, handed in his diplomatic passport in protest at the foreign minister’s comments and the recent public humiliation by deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon of Turkey’s ambassador to Israel.
“All of these provocations against our neighbours are unacceptable,” he said. “I was taught that one of Israel’s goals is to integrate into the region, not promote an aggressive policy.”