Damascus warns "Israel": Any War on his Country would Turn into a Wider Conflict

Local Editor, 03-02-2010


Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem warned "Israel" on Wednesday about launching any war against his country, saying it would turn into a wider conflict. ""Israelis", do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities," Moallem told journalists in the Syrian capital Damascus.

"Return to reason, follow the path of peace ... and implement the requirements of peace fairly and comprehensively," he told a media conference with visiting Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Moallem had been questioned about comments made on Monday by "Israeli" War Minister Ehud Barak.

"In the absence of a peace agreement with Syria, we might find ourselves in a forceful conflict that could lead to an all-out war," Barak's office quoted him as saying in a speech to senior officers on Monday.

The Syrian minister said such statements "heightened the risk of war in the region." "If such a war comes ... it will be widespread even if it is waged against (just) southern Lebanon or Syria," Moallem warned, while excluding the chance of "peace negotiations being launched after such a war."

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a meeting with Moratinos that ""Israel" was not serious in achieving peace and that everything showed it was working towards a war," according the state news agency SANA.

Syria and "Israel" held indirect talks mediated by Turkey in 2008 over the occupied Golan Heights, which was seized and later annexed by the Zionist entity after the 1967 Middle East war.