DAMASCUS: Israel has reportedly bombed a Syrian base to halt an arms shipment to Hezbollah, while the international Syria envoy said yesterday there could be no peace talks without the opposition.
The reported air strike on a military base in regime stronghold Latakia on Wednesday would be the first Israeli strike on Syria since a US-Russian accord on chemical weapons averted punitive US military action last month.
Israel did not comment on the reports that emerged on Thursday, but it has struck Syria in the past and warned it will continue to take action to prevent sophisticated weapons from falling into the hands of Hezbollah — a key Damascus ally — and other militant groups.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said Israel had targeted a shipment of surface-to-surface missiles destined for Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement fighting alongside the regime. A US official confirmed that “there was an Israeli strike” but gave no details on the location or the target.
Syria, which has cooperated with international disarmament efforts, has vowed to retaliate against any attack but did not respond when Israel carried out two air strikes in May.
Hoping to build on the momentum of last month’s US-Russian accord to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal by mid-2014, UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has meanwhile been criss-crossing the region to rally support for the so-called Geneva II talks.
But Syria’s opposition has refused to attend unless President Bashar Al Assad’s resignation is on the table — a demand rejected by Damascus — and powerful rebel groups have warned that participants would be considered traitors.
“If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference,” Brahimi told reporters in Damascus before travelling to Beirut.
The veteran Algerian diplomat, who met with Assad on Wednesday, said his government had agreed to take part in the talks and that the opposition was “trying to find a way to be represented”.
The main opposition National Coalition plans to meet November 9 to decide whether to attend the Geneva talks, but key bloc member Syrian National Council threatened to quit if it does so.
Yesterday, the Coalition criticised the Assad regime for its “lack of courage to respond” to the reported Israeli strikes.
“The Assad regime has managed to transform the Syrian army into a tool that kills the people rather than protecting them, and that turns a blind eye against the (Israeli) enemy’s attacks,” it said.
Syria’s armed forces said yesterday they had captured a strategic northern town at the eastern gates of Aleppo, the former commercial hub long the scene of fierce fighting between government and rebel fighters.
The town of Safira lies on a road the army said would be used to send in medicine and supplies to government-controlled areas of Aleppo, mired in a bloody stalemate for over a year. It is also the site of a chemical weapons installation under government control and cleared of equipment.
The capture of Safira is significant in that it marks a rare victory for Assad’s forces near the mostly rebel-held north. Opposition groups confirmed the army’s seizure of the city, southeast of Aleppo.
The reports of the Israeli strike came as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all of Syria’s chemical arms were under “tamper proof” seals.
Some 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and 290 tonnes of chemical weapons “have been placed under seals that are impossible to break,” OPCW spokesman Christian Chartier said Thursday.
The OPCW also said Syria’s chemical arms production equipment had been destroyed.
Inspectors had until Friday to destroy all production and filling equipment in accordance with a timeline laid down by the OPCW and a UN Security Council resolution.
Agencies
