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| Cooking Syria cartoon by hassanbleibel.com |
Israeli deputy premier and defense minister says
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces currently hold only 40 percent
of Syria’s territory and have lost their grip on four neighborhoods in the
capital Damascus.
Speaking
at the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Moshe Yaalon characterized
the fighting in Syria as having reached a stalemate, whereby neither side
“knows how to handle the other side in order to achieve victory.”
He
said Iran’s Lebanese militia Hezbollah is moving “its best troops” into combat
in Syria, which has become a battleground between Shiites and Sunnis with each
side "massacring the other."
Yaalon reiterated
Israel’s policy not to interfere in the Syria war “so long as Israel’s own
interests are not being hurt.”
What Israel does not
want to see, he said, includes the transfer of advanced weapons, missiles, or
chemical weapons from the Damascus government to Hezbollah or a heating up of the
frontier and a spillover.
Yaalon confirmed Israel
is operating a field hospital on the Syrian border and transferring severely
wounded Syrian nationals to Israeli hospitals for treatment.
“Our policy is to help
in humanitarian cases, and to that end we are operating a field hospital along
the Syrian border,” he said. “In cases where there are badly wounded, we
transfer them to Israeli hospitals. We have no intention of opening refugee
camps.”
Yaalon began his
security briefing with Syria, saying the country had become “a sparring ground
for the superpowers.”
The S-300, a
state-of-the-art Russian-made missile system, he said, had not yet been
delivered to Syria and, if it is eventually transferred, “that will only happen
in 2014.”
Oops
In Washington, Secretary
of State John Kerry said on Monday the United States came "late" to
efforts to end the war in Syria and is trying to prevent the total collapse of
the country.
"This is a very
difficult process, which we come to late," Kerry said at a news
conference, speaking of a U.S.-Russian effort to bring the warring parties to a
peace conference, known as Geneva-2, which might lead to a transitional
government.
The State Department’s
spokeswoman, Jennifer R. Psaki, said Kerry’s remarks had not been intended as a
rebuke of the administration’s policy thus far. “It’s not an implied criticism
of anyone — more just a recognition that more needs to be done and that’s what
we’re focused on,” she said.
Kerry said he spoke
with his Russian counterpart on Friday and Sergei Lavrov is "deeply
committed" to supporting the conference, but added the situation in Qusayr
"could put this kind of thing at risk."
The secretary of state
made no mention of Russia having blocked last Saturday a 109-word UN Security
Council statement on Qusayr that would have read:
The
members of the Security Council express their grave concern about the situation
in Qusayr, Syria, and in particular the impact on civilians of the ongoing
fighting.
The
members of the Security Council strongly call upon all sides to do their utmost
to avoid civilian casualties and for the Syrian Government to exercise its
responsibility to protect civilians. They emphasize that those
responsible for atrocities or other violations or abuses of applicable
international law will be held accountable.
The
members of the Security Council call upon the Syrian Government to allow
immediate, full and unimpeded access to impartial humanitarian actors,
including UN agencies, to reach civilians trapped in Qusayr.
But
here is what Kerry did say regarding Syria at yesterday’s news conference
with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski:
…With respect to the Turks and the process for Syria, let me
just begin by saying that what is happening in Syria is happening because one
man, who has been in power with his family for years now, more than 40 years,
will not consent to an appropriate process by which the people of Syria can
protect minorities, be inclusive, and have the people of Syria decide their
future.
He has decided
to protect himself and his regime’s interests by reaching out across state
lines and actually soliciting the help of Iran on the ground with foreign
fighters as well as Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. A designated terrorist
organization has now crossed over from Lebanon into Syria and is actively engaged
in the fighting.
President Assad
is not unwilling to use Scuds against women and children and students and
doctors and hospitals. He’s not unwilling to wreak havoc on individual
citizens. And today in Qusayr, which is under siege by his forces and the
surrogate forces, you have an extraordinary number of civilians who are
trapped, and he will not allow the Red Cross and humanitarian aid to go in
until the military has finished what it intends to do.
So I think the
world is seeing the actions of a person who has lost touch with any reality
except his own and who is willing to wreak any kind of punishment on his own –
on the people of his country simply so that he can maintain power. And so this
situation is obviously intolerable, unacceptable by any standard, and I think
all civilized countries would call on the Assad regime to pull back from that
and to engage in a legitimate peace process.
Now, with
respect to that, I’m confident that Turkey will continue to be a critical
player in this. I’m confident Turkey will reach out and resolve these
questions. It’s not the first time any government has faced this kind of
challenge. And I do expect Foreign Minister Davutoglu and the Prime Minister (Erdogan)
to remain engaged in the effort to try to resolve what is happening in Syria.
With respect to
Geneva-2, we all understand – I have said from day one – this is a very
difficult process, which we come to late. We are trying to prevent the
sectarian violence from dragging Syria down into a complete and total implosion,
where it has broken up into enclaves and the institutions of the state have
been destroyed, with God knows how many additional refugees and how many
innocent people killed.
That’s why the
effort to try to have an implementation of Geneva 1 take place at a conference.
Now, when that ripens, when that becomes a reality is going to be decided by
events on the ground and the participants themselves. The United States can
push and cajole, and President Obama has instructed all of us to try to take
every step possible to protect the people and to provide a venue for this
dialogue to take place. But in the end, the people on the ground are going to
have to decide that that’s something they’re prepared to engage in.
I spoke with
Foreign Minister Lavrov on Friday. We had a good conversation. He remains
deeply committed to trying to make this conference happen, as do all of the
support group of the people involved with the opposition. But I will say that
the possibility of the transfer of S-300s, which will upset the balance of
power with Israel as well as the prosecution of this lopsided military
initiative in Qusayr and the trapping of civilians and the treatment of
civilians, could put this kind of thing at risk. So we hope people will pull
back and stay focused on the possibilities of implementing Geneva 1 and having
a legitimate conference.
This week –
tomorrow, in fact – Under Secretary Wendy Sherman will travel to Geneva. She
will meet with Russian counterparts, and we will continue to lay the groundwork
for the possibility of a negotiated resolution. And we will stay committed to
that possibility notwithstanding the violence on the ground and the
difficulties that we face.
