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Experts Says Limited U.S. Arms to Syria Unlikely to Harm Israel
 [An Nahar] U.S. plans to arm Syrian rebels have raised fears in Israel that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands, but analysts played down the threat -- provided no big guns are involved.Washington said last week that it would provide Syria's rebels with military support in the form of small arms after it determined that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons. U.S. President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... on Wednesday declined to categorize the arms the U.S. will send to the rebels. "I cannot and will not comment on specifics on our programs related to the Syrian opposition," Obama said, at a presser in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... Two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged caution over such plans saying it "presents the question of which rebels and which weapons?" And Israel's former deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon has repeatedly warned that such a move would be a "mistake." Other Israeli officials have drawn parallels with Afghanistan in the 1980s, when U.S. supplies to Mujahedeen fighting the Russians found their way years later to al-Qaeda. Analysts said the extent of the threat to Israel depended on what weaponry was involved and where it ended up. "If it means the provision of small arms and ammunition, such as RPGs and mortars... I don't think that's going to mean anything for Israel, and am not even sure it will for the rebels," said Jonathan Spyer, senior researcher at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. Even "if some of those weapons reach the hands of extreme jihadist elements, such as Al-Nusra Front (in the Golan Heights) ... it is not a major strategic threat, but rather an irritant," he said. Posted by: Fred 2013-06-20 |
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