Syria Boosts Arms Arsenal After War
Pastor Dale Morgan
Syria Boosts Arms Arsenal After War*
Friday February 23, 2007 1:01 AM
By STEVE WEIZMAN
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) - Syria has embarked on an ``unprecedented'' effort to
bolster its armed forces with Iranian and Russian help, the Israeli
daily Haaretz reported Thursday.
Damascus has large numbers of surface-based missiles and long-range
rockets, including the Scud-D, capable of reaching nearly any target in
Israel, the report said, and the Syrian navy has received new Iranian
anti-ship missiles.
Haaretz also said Russia was about to sell Syria thousands of advanced
anti-tank missiles, despite Israeli charges that in the past Syria has
transferred those missiles to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Syrian officials did not immediately comment on the Israeli reports, but
President Bashar Assad said in a television interview immediately after
the fighting that Syria was preparing to defend itself.
Israeli defense officials confirmed that Syria had ordered new stocks of
the anti-tank weapons after noting Hezbollah's successful use of them
against Israeli armor in last summer's fighting in south Lebanon.
Syria also ordered new supplies of surface-to-sea missiles after
Hezbollah used one to hit an Israeli warship, killing four crewmen, off
the Lebanese coast last July, according to the officials, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the
media.
The officials said Syrian ground forces adjacent to the
Israeli-controlled Golan Heights had been reinforced after the outbreak
of last year's Israel-Hezbollah conflict and had not yet fully returned
to their prewar footing.
Israel and Syria are officially at war, though there have been no open
hostilities between them for decades. Syria has demanded the return of
the Golan, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed, as the price
for any peace deal. Israel says it will not discuss a formal treaty with
its northern neighbor as long as Damascus continues to back Hezbollah
and the radical Islamic Hamas group.