Posted on 10/16/2007 10:51:56 PM PDT by camerakid400
In its first official admission by a state official, Syria confirmed that an air raid carried out by Israeli fighter jets deep in Syrian territory on September 6 was, indeed, an attack on a Syrian nuclear facility, Israel Radio reported Wednesday morning.
A Syrian envoy disclosed the nature if the target during a meeting of a UN committee where Israeli envoys were also present.
A senior source in the Foreign Ministry confirmed the statement made in New York by the Syrian official.
Since first announcing on September 6 that an incursion into Syrian airspace by IAF jets took place, Syria veered between attempts to muster international condemnation of Israel on the one hand and efforts by Damascus to blur the nature and purpose of the facility attacked on the other hand.
Several weeks after the strike, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a BBC interview that the target hit by the Israeli Air Force was a building in an abandoned military base.
But several days before Assad interview, a Syrian "agricultural research center" in the area of the strike independently invited foreign journalists to visit the site, as proof that Israeli missiles missed their target.
Israel continues to keep mum on the affair, and the only information cleared by the military censor for publication was the fact that a strike took place; any other morsel of information published in Israel continues to be accompanied by the phrase "according to foreign media outlets."
Israeli analysts estimated that the government's decision not to disclose information about the strike was intended to avoid embarrassing Assad's regime, in the hope that silence on Israel's side could prevent the tension between the two countries from escalating into all-out war.
God bless Israel.
The next question is, where did Syria get the materials from?
My guess - Iran or North Korea.
yitbos
SOunds like we should be interrogating them if these are the WMD’s from Iraq. If not then someone else has some explaining to do NK or Iran...
Why would they do that?
Iraq, but they didn’t know how to weaponize them.
Syria needed North Korean scientists for that.
Spot on ole boy.
Syria had just received a shipment of “cement” from NK.
ping
Apple of His eye bookmark
Nigeria.
I don't believe they are keeping quite to avoid upsetting the Syrians. It's absurd. They just bombed Syria.
There is something else at work.
Mwuhaahaa ha ha ha.
Do I dream this will trap all the rats at CIA?
Thank you Israel!! Thank you that you had the courage to do what was necessary. I wish our government would go after things the way Israel does.
North Korea. According to reports, only 2 countries complained about the raid - Syria and North Korea.
The absence of protest from neighboring Muslium countries is believed to be tacit approval expressing concern about a nuclear Syria.
Perhaps. But, if the nuclear material came from Saddam's never located stockpile, the current government of Iraq might not complain too much, either...
“A Syrian Envoy disclosed during a UN Commitee meeting at which Israel was represented...”
A massive slip of the tongue, or a deliberate release, ordered by Assad?
Context is critical here.
If the news was released accidently, then Syria looks double stupid to the Muslim world. Couldn’t protect their own high capital resource, and admitted it publicly in a significant CF. Pressure on Syria to retaliate then increases geometrically.
If the news was released deliberately, it could be an effort to minimize fallout, i.e. speculation of losses even greater than the nuclear plant, an attempt to cut Syria’s losses.
Admitting the nuclear plant’s existence also could be a passive-aggressive move...Putin’s in Iran promising Russian support for Iran’s nuclear program, warning the west against an attack, so Syria might feel they can afford to come clean.
Finally, a deliberate admission regarding the nuclear plant also could be purely belligerent, an effort to garner support for retaliation, up to and including a declaration of war.
Exact quotes from the UN Comittee meeting would differentiate between an accidental and deliberate disclosure, and the precise wording could also indicate whether Syria’s intent was belligerent while making the disclosure.
Without the proper context offered by direct quotes, we have to assume that the full spectrum of possibilities are equally likely, at least until we get more information.
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