Damascus–Israel might be preparing a military strike against Syria by accusing Damascus of supplying Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon with long-range Scud missiles, the Syrian government said on Thursday.
Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday accused Syria of sending Hizbullah long-range Scuds. The United States said on Wednesday it was “increasingly concerned” about the transfer of more sophisticated weaponry to the Syrian and Iranian-backed Islamist group that fought a war with Israel in 2006.
“Israel aims from this to raise tension further in the region and to create an atmosphere for probable Israeli aggression,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Syrian Arab Republic denies these fabrications.”
Hizbullah hit Israel with shorter range rockets during the 2006 war as at that time it lacked a longer-ranger missile capability.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Scuds were smuggled to Hizbullah in the past two months.
The United States said the move would have a possible “destabilizing effect” on the region. The presence of more advanced missiles in Lebanon could raise the prospects of a pre-emptive strike by Israel.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in February that if Israel struck Beirut’s airport, the group would hit Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport.
While tension between Syria and Israel has increased this year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said last month he remained committed to seeking peace with the Jewish state.
Syrian and Israeli forces last fought each other in Lebanon in the 1980s. A 1974 ceasefire has kept the front between the two quiet on the Golan Heights, which Israeli occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
The two sides held four rounds of indirect peace talks in 2008, only eight months after Israeli planes bombed a target in eastern Syria the United States, Israel’s chief ally, said was an illegal nuclear project.
Syria said the target was a non-nuclear military installation, and “reserved the right to respond in the appropriate time and place.”
