Israel Wants World Action in Syria to Stop Conflict Spread
Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called Thursday for "massive intervention" by the international community in Syria to prevent the conflict there engulfing neighbors Lebanon and Iraq.
"The longer the wait, the more chaos and victims there will be," Ayalon told a small group of journalists in Paris ahead of talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
"There's not much that Israel can do, it's up to the Syrian people, the West and Russia to find a solution to stop the massacres."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that more than 15,000 people have been killed in Syria since a revolt erupted in March last year against President Bashar Assad's regime.
"We need a whole package: massive intervention from the international community on the Bosnian model, Russia should be aboard, clemency for Assad and his family," Ayalon said.
"The danger is for the war to spill over into Lebanon and Iraq, two countries that are like mirror images of Syria."
Syria remains formally at war with Israel, which in 1967 invaded and later annexed the Golan Heights, and Israel has in the past said little publicly about the conflict in its neighbor.
But in recent months, Israeli politicians have said Assad's overthrow is a matter of time and have condemned the bloodshed, hoping that the regime's collapse could weaken the position of arch foe Iran, a staunch ally of Assad.
Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the international community earlier this month to bolster its efforts to stop the bloodshed in Syria, saying he hoped the rebels would win.
The "efforts of the international community are insufficient," Peres said.
"We cannot remain indifferent to the tiny coffins that contain the bodies of children."
21 June 2012, 15:13
22
Here comes the tipping point... First, did you notice that Lieberman is nowhere to be seen or heard recently? Always the deputy. Then it is the second official green light to the international community given by Israel to take down Assad. They supported him until they understood he will not succeed and that the inaction of the international community could lead to a muslim extremist government in Syria. Israel has only one objective: its security; and they see a chance to keep syria secular if something is done now... Let's watch the next 2 weeks...
21 June 2012, 15:50
22
Israel could not be any happier that Arabs are killing Arabs , Actually Mr Assad has always played their games of separating Arab heads from their bodies in Lebanon as well as in Syria . Hizbollah also participate in this spree by murdering all Lebanese who oppose its armed presence . Who is going to liberate Palestine ? Hello
21 June 2012, 15:52
02
as Peres can not remain indifferent to tiny coffins as long as Israel is not the one that put those tiny bodies in them.
22 June 2012, 07:19
20
I agree with with the comment of how laughable is israel condemning massacres.
it has to do a lt with leanon, as I have been repeating, because the grunt of the upcoming war will be borne by us, thanks to hizbushaitan.
kindly note this has now become inevitab;e and will happen extremely soon and will be really destructive.
22 June 2012, 19:38
00
No1 wants to help. and not 1 politician has a goal in site fore a better lebanon. first things first,make ahzeb illegal in all of lebanon. give the army the power to inforce the law with a iron fist.make gun laws very tight.get caught with a gun, 1 year imprisonment no ifs or buts,dosnt matter who you are. put a big no to WAR in the media and in school's, no more religious divisions.politicians are public servants,not the other way around.
