All the intelligence people who knew Bashar told me: Its not like Bashar. [26], Assad led a small group of conspirators to capture the al-Dumayr air base, 40 kilometers (25mi) north-east of Damascus the only unit that resisted the coup. There is no reason for anyone to be in this area except for herdsmen. This was, of course, one of the two scenarios that had been feared in Israel during the summer. 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. [a] The committee enlisted the support of two Nasserists, Rashid al-Qutayni and Muhammad al-Sufi, and the independent Ziad al-Hariri. The leading members of the military committee throughout the planning process and in the immediate aftermath of taking power were Muhammad Umran, Salah Jadid and Hafez al-Assad, who belonged to the minority Alawite community. So why was it chosen? He announced his defection to opposition forces in a video aired by Al Arabiya TV on 25 December 2012. After the photographs were shown to nuclear experts, among the head of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission at the time, Gideon Frank, and his deputy, Eli Levita, it emerged that the Cube was indeed a North Korean reactor, which was in turn a copy of an outdated British reactor built in the 1950s. Any report in the media was liable to awaken the Syrians out of their complacency, alter their defensive preparedness around the reactor and deny the IDF the advantage of surprise. Both of us were very excited. Muhammad Umran, a leading member of the military committee, was a delegate at the 5th National Congress, and told Aflaq of the military committee's intentions Aflaq consented to the coup, but no agreement was made between him and the committee on how to share power after the coup. [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. Mass pro-union rioting in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama and other parts of the country followed. Barak, however, began raising reservations. The area thereby functioned as one of France's colonies, and the newly established state was viewed unfavorably by most Syrians, with many of them regarding it as a vassal of European imperialism. Even after the reactor was bombed, ripples in the Syrian-Iranian axis continued, with the incessant involvement of Hezbollah. 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. The next breakthrough, in fact the turning point of the whole affair, occurred in Vienna in early March 2007. In January 2007, a pipeline leading from the Cube to the Euphrates was identified in satellite photos. Ten years of silence on Syria strike. Party leaders then opted to overlook democratic norms and procedures. We were flying in a hostile area. While Aflaq cautioned the plotters because of the party's lack of support, they failed to share his worries, and planned to launch the coup on 7 March. [10] Of the 150 delegates to the founding congress of the Arab Ba'ath Party in 1947, the majority were either middle-class professionals or intellectuals. In Washington the Israeli delegation met with Vice President Dick Cheney and top people in the CIA and the National Security Council. In April 2007 the Winograd commission published its devastating interim report on the conduct of the war, in which it was very critical of Olmerts functioning the previous year. The Alawites, the Druzes and the Isma'ilis for instance, were religious groups with low social class who began to embrace a radical form of Arab nationalism, e.g. What actually is/was 'Shallal'? I can't find mention of it anywhere. A large, cubical building that was still under construction in the heart of the Syrian desert, not far from Deir al-Zour, was a focus of the Israeli defense establishment starting from the end of 2006. An estimated three thousand families owned half of the land in Syria. The politicians were waiting in suspense for the final report, which was due to be published in January 2008. [42] Nasser also announced his withdrawal from the 17 April unity agreement.[40][42]. By then, Mughniyeh was dead. WebBy ALBERT AJI and BASSEM MROUE October 20, 2021. However, this did not change the balance of power, and the officers still controlled the country. Israel has fired several missiles at Syrias border province of Quneitra, causing material damage. Instead, he returned to Syria via a flight to Beirut on 23 June to protest the Committee's move against him. 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. The US military has defended as "legitimate" an air strike attack which killed dozens of people in Syria in 2019. 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. I looked at them. The disagreement here is not between those who want a war and those who oppose it. It occurred to me that we could wake up the next morning and the horizon would be full of [incoming] missiles. Caught in a pincer movement, the commander of the 70th Armoured Brigade, Lieutenant General Abd al-Karim surrendered to the plotters Umran took over as acting commander of the 70th Armoured Brigade. The Syrian regime completed the destruction of the building. In one plane, a problem was solved, after [it had become clear that] not all the systems were working. However, there were no doubts about the decision itself. I cant remember him ever hugging me on any other occasion but this time he was all smiles. [7] The same elite that had governed Syria during the mandate continued in power, and they ruled in the same manner. Today that same Soleimani commands Irans military moves in the Middle East, including the basing of the Shiite militias in southern Lebanon, the next front where Israel is likely to find itself acing Syria and Iran. [1] [2] References ^ "Top Syrian general declares defection on Al Arabiya". The year before, he commanded the mission to kidnap two Israeli army reservists on the northern Israeli border near Zarit that triggered the Second Lebanon War. With high certainty, one of the two types would reach the target.. Syria Assad was building a plutonium nuclear reactor, he argued. Western intelligence sources told the Washington Post in 2015 that General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been with Mughniyeh in Damascus that night, but somehow he did not die in the blast that killed the Lebanese terrorist. Moreover, this time careful attention was paid to the procedures of the discussions and decision-making, for the neglect of which Olmert was severely chastised in the interim report. The trick was not to take responsibility and immediately after the bombing to push ahead with a diplomatic effort that would convince other countries of the reliability of the information about what the Syrians were preparing and spur them to act to restrain him., Two different air force strike options were on the table, the difference between them was the size of the aerial force that would be used. The next morning I assembled my people and I said we had experienced two total failures here: Wed had absolutely no idea that such a program even existed and, second, we didnt know that negotiations to dismantle it had been going on for eight months. 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. Dagans weekly meeting with the prime minister in Tel Aviv was scheduled for 8 A.M. the next day. For the coup to be successful, the military committee needed to gain the support of some of the Syrian officer corps. [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. Rubble was scattered around the building and the place looked fairly neglected, perhaps intentionally so. However, said the president, he had decided to send an envoy to Syria to pose an ultimatum to Assad to demolish the reactor, under international supervision. The war and the investigations revealed hugs gaps in the armys capabilities and the readiness of its units. The prime minister chose to ignore this suggestion. According to David Makovsky, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in addition to eight attack planes, a number of other aircraft also took part in the operation. While Atassi and Hariri held powerful posts, they did not possess enough personal or political power to threaten the NCRC. AP Photo/Hassan Ammar. [36] While al-Hariri was away, the Committee used the opportunity to undertake a purge of about 30 elite officersmostly political independentsunder al-Hariri's command. The opposition-run health directorate says at least 84 people died. [5] The landownerpeasant alliance was based on class differences, and social antagonism between each other this would lead to the landowner's downfall. Husni al-Za'im became the first military dictator of Syria in 1949, but in 1950, military officer Adib Shishakli gained power behind the scenes, and by 1953 had established another military dictatorship. [24] Qasim's downfall changed the rules of Arab politics the Nasserists had monopolised the Arab nationalist movement since the UAR, but the takeover made the Ba'ath Party a force to be reckoned with. Web8 Sep 2022 Israels bombing of Syrias Aleppo International Airport on Tuesday was the second time it had been attacked in less than a week. Syria There was a crazy high all around him, said one of those who were present. We set out around 10:30 P.M., recalls Amir. WebShayrat airbase was the target of the US' first deliberate direct attack on Syrian forces since the start of the war six years ago. 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. Do you remember something in the north that was bothering me? said the prime minister to the president. Amir relates that a number of years later he watched a video that had been filmed in the command post during the attack. "Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons.". Y. reached the conclusion that they were looking in the wrong place. Russia launches pre-dawn missile attack on Ukraine, Chaos at port as thousands rush to leave Sudan. This is very serious.. Meir Dagan was very determined. [15] The establishment and the dissolution of the UAR was a catastrophe for the Ba'ath Party as it divided among those who supported the UAR, those who opposed it and those who opposed or supported the traditional leaders of the party. Anyone who goes running to television risks causing a war.. No one is going to solve them for us. 1963 Syrian coup d'tat - Wikipedia 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. Assad conducted the nuclear project in great secrecy, with very few partners to the secret. In a one-on-one conversation Olmert tried to resolve their differences of opinion, but according to him Barak continued to try to convince ministers that a premature bombing of the reactor would cost Israel a war. Olmert implored Bush and Cheney to attack nevertheless, and argued that such a move would also help deter Iran. We were very focused on the escape route because it could elicit surprises.. [39] Unsuccessful, he left the country for France in a self-imposed exile on 8 July. 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. On August 31, Olmert and Barak held a limited operational consultation with the heads of the defense organizations. 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. You have done your bit for the people of Israel.. Secondly, it caused huge embarrassment vis--vis Turkey, which at the time was a country friendly to Israel, even though Recep Tayyip Erdogan was already serving as prime minister. Therefore, the findings from the reactor were presented as findings at a low level of certainty. In Israel they were surprised by that conclusion. At a distant and isolated site called Al Kibar, less than a kilometer west of the Euphrates River, the Cube aroused their interest in particular. [27] Another policy was to staff positions in the armed forces with Alawite relatives and friends close to the members of Military Committee. Mostly it went according to plan, but not everything. Rescue workers said many children were among those killed or injured in the suspected chemical attack in Idlib. [8][9] The Arab countries eventually abandoned their project. If you dont do it, we will, he said. A cell of Mossad agents from the Keshet unit broke into the apartment where Othman was staying and within less than an hour vacuumed up the information that was on the Syrian officials personal computer, which had remained in the apartment while he was taking part in the conference. Middle East. When the intelligence people analyzed the material from Vienna, they were appalled. Syrian Civil War | Facts & Timeline | Britannica (res.) [26], 820 people were reported killed during the takeover and another 20 were executed shortly afterwards. The vast majority of those who took part in the meetings describe a very sharp, determined leader, almost chomping at the bit. According to most observers, including Johnston himself, the Arab non-adoption of the plan was not total rejection. It is far from any settlement. Before successful strike, Israel's most resounding intel failure. The initial diversion capacity of the National Water Carrier, without supplementary booster pumps, was 320 million m3, well within the limits of the Johnston Plan. There is a bit of excitement before the bomb hits. 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. 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. Covering about 10 sq km (4 sq miles), it has two 3km-long (2 mile) runways, as well as dozens of hangars, buildings and storage facilities. Syria war: Why was Shayrat airbase bombed? - BBC News Authorize the operation.. Ashkenazi showed up together with many of the generals, in part so as not to arouse suspicion that something was afoot.
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