This became a source of outcry across Syria and numerous intellectuals began highlighting the new regime's sectarian character through media outlets and publications. The latter's anti-UAR government had also been overthrown by pro-UAR officers in 1963. In one plane, a problem was solved, after [it had become clear that] not all the systems were working. Michael Hayden, the head of the CIA, wrote years later in The Washington Post that he told Bush that his agency had concluded that the site at Al Kibar was part of a nuclear weapons program and there was no other explanation for its existence. Shallal is situated nearby to Kur Udani and Ranhebas. The PM hoped that the U.S. would take it upon itself to destroy the reactor. I meet with him as a matter of course. Rubble was scattered around the building and the place looked fairly neglected, perhaps intentionally so. Video, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies, Trevelyan relative 'would consider' famine payment, Four dead after suspected pigeon racer dispute, Ding becomes China's first male world chess champion, UK chip giant Arm files for blockbuster share sale, Adidas sued by investors over Kanye West deal, US principal visits David sculpture after nudity row. However we, under his orders, did not let go of it for a long time.. The Nasserist officers were also given notable offices with Muhammad al-Sufi becoming Minister of Defence and Rashid al-Qutayni becoming deputy chief of staff. Shelly said to us: You are champions.. The Syrian nuclear reactor, before the Israeli strike. Olmert quoted one of Assads speeches from early June in which the Syrian president predicted that toward the end of the summer there would be a development that would completely change the reality of the Middle East. The leader of Islamic State and one of the worlds most wanted men has been killed during an overnight raid in Syria by US special forces.. There, his deputy had already convened the men of the General Staff. [39] Unsuccessful, he left the country for France in a self-imposed exile on 8 July. [16], The 8 March Revolution has often been viewed as a mere military coup, but it had many of the ingredients of national revolts from below. At about 03:40 local time (00:40 GMT) on Friday, two US Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea launched a total of 59 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) at the airbase. There were no political considerations behind his recommendations. [27], The first act of the new rulers of Syria was to establish the twenty-man National Council for the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), composed of twelve Ba'athists and eight Nasserists and independents. Summary. Top Israeli officials, most of them intelligence people, set out for Western countries and a number of friendly countries in the region to share the incriminating information about the secret Syrian reactor. I said to him: The air force did what it was assigned to do., The prime minister celebrated the achievement by raising a toast. The Syrian branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was able to recruit youth from radical peasant movements and thus was able to mobilise large sectors of the population. Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said Shayrat airbase was used to store chemical weapons, and that US intelligence assessed that aircraft from there had dropped bombs filled with a nerve agent on Khan Sheikhoun, killing more than 80 people. Al-Hariri led a brigade from the Syrian front towards Israel, while Ba'athists were able to gain control of a second brigade stationed in Suwayda. The company's analysts said the work and the presence of newly deployed helicopters suggested the base was gaining importance for the Syrian government and Russia as they sought to counter jihadist militants from so-called Islamic State (IS) in Homs province. Syria Israel was still grappling with its disappointment after the Second Lebanon War. Peres, who as leader of the opposition at the time of the bombing of the reactor in Iraq had expressed reservations about that attack as well, surprised Olmert with the suggestion that Israel should attempt to talk with the Syrians first. Ba'athism. From the beginning, the military committee members formed state policies behind the backs of other NCRC members when the civilian leadership found out, al-Atrash said: "Why do not these gentlemen speak? "We are assessing the results of the strike," he added. [22] The military committee ordered a group of junior officers to recruit the leading independent Colonel Ziad al-Hariri, the commander of the front facing Israel, to their cause. Come to think of it the court of history. The following afternoon, the Syrian news agency issued a laconic statement to the effect that during the night its air defense system had chased away Israeli planes that had penetrated Syrias air space. [4] Agricultural revenues were highly skewed the top two percent of the population received 50 percent of the income, while the middle class (merchants or middle landowning groups), which was 18 percent of the population, earned 25 percent of agricultural revenues. He announced his defection to opposition forces in a video aired by Al Arabiya TV on 25 December 2012. We set out around 10:30 P.M., recalls Amir. However, an extensive action was liable to be perceived as a humiliation by President Assad and push him into a corner so that he would feel obliged to retaliate. It is a plutogenic reactor, the head of the Mossad told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. WebThe Syrian Civil War is an ongoing violent conflict in Syria between pro-democratic insurgents and Syrian President Bashar al-Assads long-standing dynastic regime. Akram al-Hawrani founded the Arab Socialist Party (ASP) in 1953 the Ba'ath Party was established through a merger of the ASP and the Arab Ba'ath Party. The silence on the Israeli side, which overall was maintained in accordance with the advance planning, helped reduce the sense of humiliation felt by the Syrian president and gave credence to his range of plausible deniability. Olmert, according to Barak, tended to act almost automatically, without due consideration. A quiet and relatively clandestine action would probably be perceived in Syria less emotionally but in such a case, there would be no certainty that the nuclear threat had been eradicated. The prime minister, who managed to take a two-hour nap, went on to Tel Aviv to follow the operation from the air force underground command post together with Barak, Livni, the chief of staff and the air force commander. Baraks behavior, says one of the top defense people, was simply deplorable, Especially taking into account the disagreement about bombing the nuclear sites in Iran, which erupted two years later. Gen. Shelly Gutman, the commander of the Hatzerim base, was waiting. You dont see what is happening inside. Olmert implored Bush and Cheney to attack nevertheless, and argued that such a move would also help deter Iran. In the meantime, final preparations were under way in the air force. Even the liberal and democratic-inclined founding leaders were partial to forceful takeover, citing the corrupt electoral process. As was its wont, Damascus denied everything, and the IAEA did nothing about all this despite Syrias blatant violation of a treaty to which it was a signatory. We were able to say with certainty: This reactor is intended to produce plutonium and for military purposes only, says Yadlin. The prime minister warned the American president that setting the diplomatic channel in motion would make it possible for the Syrians to play for time in the talks while hastening the completion of the construction of the reactor. They put on the table an intelligence finding of the type rarely encountered in this country. [1] The issue of water sharing from the JordanYarmuk system turned out to be a major problem between Israel, Syria and Jordan. To go in with two kinds of planes, with different kinds of armament, because every plane is vulnerable to blocking in a different way, but this way, the second kind could compensate. However, that day the military intelligence raided the apartment where the plotters were planning to assemble. bombing Alongside the urgent necessity of removing the surprising new threat in Syria, Olmert was keen to mend the flaws revealed in his functioning in Lebanon as well as the publics impression of him. Concurrently, the preparations began in the IDF for the possibility of things going sour, but in order to maintain the secrecy of the operation, it was necessary to tailor a false narrative for most of the commanders, and later also for the public and the media. Mar 23, 2018. That was no simple matter, a year after Lebanon., An existential threat to the State of Israel arose here and we dealt with it, the way the air force had dealt with the reactor in Iraq in the past, says Col. Amir, the F-15 pilot who took part in the attack. At both MI and the Mossad, they started to act to confirm or refute the hypothesis proposed by Major Y. Ahmad Suwaydani, one of the new members of the Military Committee, was appointed Head of Military Intelligence and Mazyad Hunaydi became Head of the Military Police. Accordingly, the Arab states have to prepare the plans necessary for dealing with the political, economic and social aspects, so that if necessary results are not achieved, collective Arab military preparations, when they are not completed, will constitute the ultimate practical means for the final liquidation of Israel.[5]. The scheme was only marginally feasible, as it was technically difficult and expensive. I am able to defeat Syria, said Olmert in that conversation, but I need you to act there specifically because of the Iranian nuclear program.. The traditional elite that took power in Syria when the country gained independence had come to power during the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. On Tuesday, September 4, the air force conducted its last mock maneuver in advance of the attack. Some of its planes had been ordered to bomb rebel positions. [c], At the beginning, there were no signs of the quarrels that would destroy the military committee. In the preparations for the operation, we practiced ways of arriving, implementation, routes, distances, without telling the pilots and the navigators who were taking part what the target was. I went to Olmert. It was then 2:00 A.M. on Wednesday. The process, say many, was very organized, strictly by the book and a paragon of order by Israeli standards. The conflict in Syria is often referred to as a civil war, meaning a conflict between citizens of the same country. Shamal was laid down 23 September 1994 by Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, May I suggest they appoint a liaison officer to communicate their views to us? Yet in 2008, IAEA inspectors found traces of radioactive substances there, and the agency said there was a high probability that a nuclear reactor had been in operation at the site. War over Water (Jordan river) - Wikipedia A lot of people told him that it wasnt possible that there was a reactor, and that it would be a pity to waste the resources and the time. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? While no group immediately claimed responsibility for Olmerts behavior toward top people in the defense establishment seemed too folksy to him too much hugging and backslapping, not enough considered judgment. There was a crazy high all around him, said one of those who were present. He did not revise his opinion when they sat together in sensitive deliberations in the cabinet and in smaller forums. No longer a secret: How Israel destroyed Syria's nuclear reactor His chief of staff, Yoram Turbovich, in a state of total euphoria, said to Olmert: You can resign now. [11] However, the Ba'ath Party was not a purely middle-class party, and from the very beginning, it sent party cadres to rural areas to recruit new members and form new party organisations. According to reports in the American media, his assassination was a join Mossad-CIA operation in revenge for Mughniyehs role in hijacking a TWA airliner in Beirut in 1985, and for attacking U.S. Marines in Lebanon two years earlier. In a series of cabinet meetings, the hostility between the prime minister and his defense minister became more extreme. A number of those who were present later observed that, as one of them put it, Gideon Frank, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, blanched and nearly fainted. We started to back-analyze the Libyan program and try to figure out where else in the region similar programs could be hiding.. The potentially hostile unit stationed in Qatana, south-west of Damascus, did not intervene probably because Widad Bashir had taken control over communications in the Damascus area. Amir, one of the F-15 pilots who took part in the attack, was dual: to advance the operation without most of the crews knowing what it was about and at the same time to prepare the rest of the squadron for the possibility that as a result of the operation, hostilities might break out, and all this while this group was not privy to preparations for the attack itself. For other water conflicts, see, Arab League summit meeting convened in Cairo, "Turning Water into Fire: the Jordan River as the Hidden Factor in The Six Day War", http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu18ce/uu18ce0a.htm#10.%20principles%20for%20confidence%20building%20measures%20in%20the%20jordan%20river%20watershed, http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80858e/80858E0m.htm, "An American in Palestine: Elwood Mead and Zionist Water Resource Planning, 1923-1936", Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, Wave of violence in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194, UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=War_over_Water_(Jordan_river)&oldid=1146917736, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 March 2023, at 19:01. Barak, shouting, argued that he had not authorized the presentation. [1] [2] References ^ "Top Syrian general declares defection on Al Arabiya". Instead, they had become deeply hostile to pan-Arabist thought and had become radical socialists instead. Olmert stayed in his office to work. Middle East. Now, a Haaretz investigation goes behind the scenes of the 2007 strike on 'The Cube,' shortly before it became an active nuclear reactor: From the intelligence failures and American foot-dragging, to the arguments at the top levels and the threats of a total war with Syria. There was unease because the home front was not aware of what might be waiting for it. The military committee, which would launch the 8 March Revolution, shared most of their views. Syrian He pushed for formulation of alternative proposals. This is right next door. Shallal Shallal is a village in Shallal is situated close to the villages El Mazyunat Khaddzh Khasan and Jubb as Safa. Olmert consulted, individually, three of the previous prime ministers: Shimon Peres (who a few months later was elected president of Israel), leader of the opposition Benjamin Netanyahu and citizen Ehud Barak. Olmert did not ask Bush for authorization of an Israeli attack but let the president understand that he was of a mind to order the IDF to act. Meir Dagan was skeptical about the findings; Syria was not a top priority for Mossad activity and the assessment did not constitute a breakthrough in the gathering of substantial proof. [13] While the Ba'ath Party was strong, its decision to recruit members from across society led to tribalism and clientelism within the party. I cant remember him ever hugging me on any other occasion but this time he was all smiles. [18] The military, which in many countries is conservative and elitist, became radicalised in Syria because the military wanted greater power, believing that the traditional elite was unable to defend the country. [b], Modern Syria was first established in 1920 as the Arab Kingdom of Syria under King Faisal I. The committee decided state policies before the sessions of the NCRC, and by doing so became the real seat of power. People realized that there was something bigger here. Between June and September, the operational planning became more detailed, additional precise information about the destination came in, different methods of action were assembled and finally the crews were slotted into the operation. WebAbdulaziz al-Shalal (Redirected from Abdulaziz Al-Shalal) Major General Abdulaziz al-Shalal ( Arabic: ) was chief of the Syrian military police. However the British, who had helped establish the state after World War I, made a secret agreement (Sykes-Picot Agreement) with France and established the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. "[27] From that day, Umran gave the civilians a faint idea of what the committee members were planning. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Syria However, you must avoid aerial dogfights with enemy planes. The new chief of staff initiated a process of rehabilitation but when he was shown the findings from Othmans computer, Ashkenazi realized that he was facing a series of problems completely different from what he had been preparing for: how to get rid of the new threat in a way that would not spark a new war with Syria and Hezbollah and if a war did break out how to ensure that the IDF would win this time. Web23 Feb 2022. [40][41] The Army Headquarters, personally defended by al-Hafiz, and the broadcast station were attacked, and the ensuing battle left hundreds of people dead, including several civilian bystanders. [19] The new middle class alone could only produce instability, but together with the peasantry, the revolution became possible. According to Sufrin, after a month and a half of investigating, the Mossad research team concluded that Syria was working on a nuclear program of its own. Very quickly, it was given a name: the Cube. The Mossad led several overseas operations as part of that intelligence gathering. (res.) [37], The Nasserists still maintained a relatively high level of strength in the military, despite the purges, and on 18 July, under the leadership of Jassem Alwan and the help of Egyptian intelligence, they attempted to launch a daytime coup against the new government. [7] The same elite that had governed Syria during the mandate continued in power, and they ruled in the same manner. By the time Olmert left office less than two years later, Israel had again according to the foreign press heavily bombed an Iranian convoy in the heart of Sudan that was en route to Gaza. That evening, the wedding of the chief of staffs secretary, Liron, went ahead as planned. You have done your bit for the people of Israel.. The airbase has been occupied by the Syrian military throughout the country's six-year civil war, and Syrian Air Force Su-22 and MiG-23 warplanes fly from there. Gradually, it became clear that there were three competing approaches within the administration, and that the president was trying to choose among them. At the beginning of the discussion Livni still hestitated, but she was convinced by the chief of staffs arguments that the proposed military action would ensure a more certain outcome. According to various reports at the time, Mughniyehs friend General Suleiman had no kinder a fate. At 1:30, we got back to Israel and landed at the base. In mid-June the former prime minister won the primary for Labor Party leadership, replacing Peretz in that position, and he announced that he himself would be the new defense minister. The inequality between urban and rural dwellers, together with capitalist penetration of the agrarian sector and the traditional elites' monopolisation of most large revenue sources, led to the establishment of peasant movements who fought for change or opposed the system. The Syrian silence helped this. The first research breakthrough occurred in November 2006. When the IAEA wanted to visit the site, following reports of the attack and leaked allegations that it had actually been a nuclear reactor, the Syrians claimed there was nothing to see because there had been nothing there. Attacking a hot reactor was liable to create tremendous environmental pollution. Efrat will know about it only now, when the articles and interviews are published. A significant group of military personnel were recruited from the new middle class or the hinterlands. In the underground hangar that our plane returned to, Brig. The military committee decided it had to capture al-Kiswah and Qatana, two military camps, seize control of the 70th Armoured Brigade at al-Kiswah, the Military Academy in the city of Homs and the Damascus radio station. Syrian nuclear reactor attack: Step by step, The Intelligence Failure Surrounding the Syria Strike, The Real Fallout From Israel's Attack on Syrian Reactor. [42] Nasser also announced his withdrawal from the 17 April unity agreement.[40][42]. Haaretz.com, the online English edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, gives you breaking news, analyses and opinions about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. Following that, one of the F-16s was supposed to broadcast the word Arizona on long-range radio back to Tel Aviv to indicate that the target had been bombed according to plan. And it was also the start of the intense hostility between that prime minister and his defense minister, which took root during that summer of 2007, and of the impassioned war over who among the top brass in the military organizations deserved the credit. U.S. Response to the al-Shabab Attack in Somalia On 9 March the NCRC released Lu'ay al-Atassi from jail, promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general, appointed him commander-in-chief and NCRC chairman, the de facto head of state. It certainly started as an uprising of Syrian citizens. Mobile footage of missile strike in Syria, "Obviously, the regime will maintain the certain capacity to commit mass murder with chemical weapons, we think, beyond this particular airfield. Despite the shadow of failure in Lebanon, if all these claims are true, the Olmert administration demonstrated an aggressive and particularly active line against the nuclear threat and against the threats of terrorism and guerrilla warfare in neighboring countries. strikes that killed civilians in Syria Localities. It was the prime minister at that time, Menachem Begin, who established the doctrine whereby Israel will not allow any of its foes in the Middle East to develop nuclear weapons. The Syrian reactor several weeks after the Israeli strike. The senior members of the newly established regime were Umran, Jadid and at last, Assad. [5] The landownerpeasant alliance was based on class differences, and social antagonism between each other this would lead to the landowner's downfall. Though the relations between Olmert and Barak were fairly good, and it appeared that Olmert wanted Barak in Defense, Barak had voiced some harsh criticism of the prime ministers conduct during the war in Lebanon. In the air force it was decided to brief only the top command in each of the two operational squadrons about the nature of the target that was to be attacked. At the time, the officer corps was split into five different factions; the Damascus faction which supported the Syrian Government, supporters of Akram al-Hawrani, a Nasserist faction, a Ba'athist faction and a group of independents. There is a tremendous explosion that you see in the darkness and after that, total destruction.
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