Israel will take in Allawi Shias From Syria after Assad leaves

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Salem9022

Junior Member
Israel is making preparations to house refugees from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect should his government fall, Israel's military chief told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday

"On the day that the regime falls, it is expected to result in a blow to the Alawite sect. We are preparing to take in Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights," a committee spokesman quoted Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz as saying.

Israeli officials have said they do not expect Mr Assad's government to last more than a few months.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mr Assad again blamed the unrest on a foreign conspiracy against Syria.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said last week that Mr Assad "is weakening" and will fall this year.

"In my opinion ... he won't see the end of the year. I don't think he will even see the middle of this year. It doesn't matter if it will take six weeks or 12 weeks, he will be toppled and disappear," Mr Barak said.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

Successive Israeli governments have sought peace with Mr Assad, seeing his government as a possible anchor for wider Israeli-Arab accommodation.

Although Israel and Syria are technically at war, the Golan Heights has long been quiet and a United Nations force patrols the demarcation line between the Golan Heights and Syria.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-11/israel-syria-refugees/3766816
 
S

Salem9022

Junior Member
JERUSALEM — Israel is preparing to receive Syrian Alawite refugees on the occupied Golan Heights if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad collapses, Israel's army chief of staff said on Tuesday.

"On the day the Assad regime falls, it is expected to harm the Alawite clan. We are preparing to receive Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights," Lieutenant General Benny Gantz told MPs at the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence, in remarks communicated by a spokesman.

"It is impossible to predict in the current situation what is going to happen the date after the fall of Bashar al-Assad," he said of the Syrian leader.

Assad's government is engaged in a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy activists, which the United Nations says killed more than 5,000 people in 2011.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said he believed Assad's family had only "a few weeks" left in control of the strife-torn country.

"The Assad family has no more than a few weeks to remain in control in Syria," Barak told the same parliamentary committee, and later said such a development could have "implications" for the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Assad family are Alawites, members of a Shiite minority group who are strongly represented in the top ranks of the Syrian army and the ruling Baath party.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.de1b6202342d998e00eb801ac291148e.581
 
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