New York Post Online Edition: Russia is trying to defend the Syrian regime against U.S. pressure and possible U.N. sanctions
New York Post Online Edition: commentary: "RUSSIAN TO SYRIA'S SIDE
By URI DAN
September 23, 2005 -- JERUSALEM - Russia is trying to defend the Syrian regime against U.S. pressure and possible U.N. sanctions, according to a secret Israeli foreign office cable.
'Russia regards Syria as its only foothold in the Middle East,' the report said.
That's quite a change from the days when Moscow also had strong allies in Cairo, Baghdad and elsewhere in the region.
Russia has been trying to upgrade its ties to Syria, beginning with the visit of President Bashar al-Assad to Moscow last January.
But Russia is suddenly worried about Syria's growing isolation in the international arena, due to American charges of Damascus' support of terror in Iraq and because of what the cable called 'the Syrian fingerprints' in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently told The Post the evidence provided by a Syrian officer who defected to France may indicate the Syrian presidency was directly involved in the killing of Hariri, a critic of Damascus.
Assad's problems escalated because Detlev Mehlis, appointed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate the Hariri slaying, has interrogated top officials in Damascus, including the intelligence and military intelligence chiefs and even Assad's brother Maher.
'Russia did not object' to the Hariri investigation at first because it believed 'the damage to Syria would not go beyond its open control of Lebanon,' the cable said.
But the vigor of Mehlis' investigation now has Moscow worried it will lose friends in Damascus who are 'the base of Russia's presence in the Middle East,' it said."
By URI DAN
September 23, 2005 -- JERUSALEM - Russia is trying to defend the Syrian regime against U.S. pressure and possible U.N. sanctions, according to a secret Israeli foreign office cable.
'Russia regards Syria as its only foothold in the Middle East,' the report said.
That's quite a change from the days when Moscow also had strong allies in Cairo, Baghdad and elsewhere in the region.
Russia has been trying to upgrade its ties to Syria, beginning with the visit of President Bashar al-Assad to Moscow last January.
But Russia is suddenly worried about Syria's growing isolation in the international arena, due to American charges of Damascus' support of terror in Iraq and because of what the cable called 'the Syrian fingerprints' in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently told The Post the evidence provided by a Syrian officer who defected to France may indicate the Syrian presidency was directly involved in the killing of Hariri, a critic of Damascus.
Assad's problems escalated because Detlev Mehlis, appointed by the U.N. Security Council to investigate the Hariri slaying, has interrogated top officials in Damascus, including the intelligence and military intelligence chiefs and even Assad's brother Maher.
'Russia did not object' to the Hariri investigation at first because it believed 'the damage to Syria would not go beyond its open control of Lebanon,' the cable said.
But the vigor of Mehlis' investigation now has Moscow worried it will lose friends in Damascus who are 'the base of Russia's presence in the Middle East,' it said."
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