Sunday, October 16, 2011

Another potential tipping point? Syria Accuses Israel of Sending Weapons to Dissidents

Syria is taking things up a notch in their rhetoric with Israel and potentially setting the stage for aggressive action as they have previously threatened. Recall that it was only about a week ago that Syria allegedly discovered Israeli arms in a car, and now this:

"Syria: Anti-Assad Protesters Use Israeli-Made Weapons

Syrian delegation to Arab League claims opposition uses grenades, machine guns made in Israel; Arab League calls for dialogue in Syria on Sunday claimed that anti-government protesters in Syria have been using weapons that were manufactured in Israel, Israel Radio reported.


The Syrian delegation to the Arab League said during a meeting in Cairo that Syrian TV will show images of Israeli-made grenades and machine guns that were taken from dissidents calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Arab foreign ministers held an urgent meeting on Sunday to discuss whether to suspend Syria from their regional organization over Assad's military crackdown on protests against his rule.


The timing of this announcement is certainly interesting:

In the end, the regional body did not decide to suspend Syria. Instead, the Arab League made plans to bring together Syria's government and opposition groups to seek ways to end the violence in the country

According to the plan, a committee will be formed to forge a dialogue between the opposition and the government.

"We will call all of the parties of the opposition and government to hold a dialogue within 15 days," the League's Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said after an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.


Clearly, Assad sees his time as growing short.

His last resort may be to engage in serious warfare with Israel as he has been threatening.

Ginning up this "weapons discovery" may be the perfect excuse.

We'll see.

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