MADRID - Syria will enter the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah if Israel Defense Forces ground troops enter Lebanon and approach Syria, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview published on Sunday. "If Israel invades Lebanon over ground and comes near to us, Syria will not sit tight. She will join the conflict," he told "ABC" newspaper.
| Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please ... |
U.S. ally Qatar is involved in mediation to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, senior political sources said Sunday. The sources said Qatar, which has not signed a peace treaty with Israel but enjoys friendly ties with it, had intensified its diplomacy in recent days directly with Israeli officials and also with Hezbollah through Lebanese officials. "The Qataris are mediating between Israel and Hezbollah to end the current crisis in Lebanon," one senior political source told Reuters. The sources did not give details.
Asked for Israel's reaction, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "Qatar is a country that we have met in the past ... If Qatar is working behind the scenes to secure the release of the hostages, that is a good thing."
Qatar and European countries have criticized Israel's offensive while the United States, Israel's closest ally, has resisted growing calls for a ceasefire and joined Israel in blaming the Iranian-backed Hezbollah for the crisis.
Ahmadinejad: Israel pushed button of its own destruction
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadeinejad declared Sunday that Israel had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by launching its military campaign against Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Ahmadinejad didn't elaborate, but suggested that Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers, led by the United States. On Saturday, the chairman of Iran's armed forced joint chiefs, Major General Sayyed Hassan Firuzabadi, said Iran would never join the current Middle East fighting.
"Britain and the United States are accomplices of the Zionist regime in its crimes in Lebanon and Palestine," Ahmadinejad said.
He said "the people of the region will respond" unless Israel and its allies apologize for their policies. "Arrogant powers have set up a base for themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region," he said. "But today, the occupier regime [Israel] - whose philosophy is based on threats, massacre and invasion - has reached its finishing line."
In Tehran, the government has sanctioned billboards showing Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and a message that it is the duty of Muslims to "wipe out" Israel. |