Word: assad
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WASHINGTON, D.C.: A year after an unprecedented wave of Hamas terrorist bombings brought a bloody end to Israel?s peace talks with Syria, Benjamin Netanyahu says he's ready to resume talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad. Although Netanyahu said he would not set preconditions for talks, preconditions for peace appear still on the table. According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Netanyahu told both President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in meetings Thursday that "you must make it clear to Assad that he must think of other options -- the option of a total withdrawal from the Golan...
Soon after the menacing statements from Syria, Israeli defense officials say, they noticed that Assad was training his forces more aggressively, emphasizing attack rather than defense strategies. Most ominously, he moved his 14th division, an elite commando outfit, from Beirut, where it protects Syrian interests in Lebanon, to positions close to the frontier with Israel. Syrian officials say the recent activity is defensive and insist they have no plans to strike. Moreover, many Arab analysts accuse Israel of playing up the war talk as a means of diverting attention from the paralysis in the peace process since Netanyahu came...
Still, right or wrong, the Israelis are convinced that Assad has a scheme in his head: to use special forces to grab and hold a small piece of the Golan Heights, creating a crisis that would compel the U.S. to intervene and restart negotiations, presumably resulting in Syria's recovery of the Golan. Because Assad understands well that his forces are inferior to Israel's, no one thinks he would provoke a full-scale war. But that might still be the result, were Israel to respond to a limited land grab, as it has threatened, with a disproportionately severe counterattack...
...response to Assad's moves, the Israelis have increased their intelligence gathering and are planning and rehearsing their responses to a Syrian offensive. In addition to taking regular troops through their paces, as in the two major tank exercises held recently, commanders are perfecting plans to call up reserves, who make up the bulk of the military. In headquarters across the Golan Heights, the lights scarcely go out any more as officers work through the night...
Despite their noisy maneuvers on the Golan, the Israelis are not convinced that Assad has got the message about the consequences of any misadventure. Says an official: "It's not a question of what he does tomorrow or next month. The point is, there is no question that Assad is, step by step, preparing the military option very seriously...