On Syrian missiles, Netanyahu may be too late
Arabic daily reports that Russia has already given Syria its advanced anti-aircraft missile system
Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
An American and British pledge to step up the pressure on Bashar Assad to resign leads the news in several Arab dailies Tuesday, amid reports that the Syrian president’s forces have made significant advances on the ground.
Saudi daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat features a photo of US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron shaking hands at the end of a press conference in Washington Monday, in a story dealing primarily with the arrest of nine Turkish nationals suspected of carrying out the deadly attacks that killed 46 people in the border town of Reihanli on Saturday.
Turkish sources tell the daily that the nine men admitted to preparing the attacks months in advance, and that they are part of the Acilciler group which maintains close ties with Syrian intelligence.
London-based daily Al-Hayat reports that in their meeting, which lasted over an hour, Obama and Cameron primarily discussed the Syrian issue, congratulating Russia and President Vladimir Putin for organizing a new peace conference.
Quoting “Russian experts,” the daily also reports that Russia is unlikely to oblige Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by canceling the sale of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Netanyahu is scheduled to land in Moscow on Tuesday and hold talks with President Putin.
Indeed, the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that Russia delivered S-200 missiles to Syria at the start of the crisis two years ago and trained the Syrian army on how to use them. According to the daily, the S-200 has a range of 150 kilometers and can hit a target accurately.
The daily reported that Syria may even already have the more advanced S-300 ant-aircraft system. “The same source says that Benjamin Netanyahu may hear from the Russians that the Russian ministry of defense has given Damascus S-300 missiles and that the matter is done, as this system is already in Syrian territory. The source hinted that the next stage is completely handing over the command process over this system to the Syrians,” reads the article in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Ghassan Imam claims, in an op-ed titled “Hezbollah is killing Syrians to establish an Alawite state,” that the maneuverability of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Syria is limited due to the significant Alawite population in the Hatay province, known in Arabic as Iskenedrun, where the explosions took place.
“The existence of an Alawite minority in Turkey was an implicit reason for the lack of maneuverability by the Erdogan regime in pressuring and threatening the Assad regime,” writes Imam. “True, the Turkish regime aided the Syrian opposition factions. But the remnants of Arab Alawites in Iskenderun (Hatay) were fed up with the Syrian refugees of Kurdish and Sunni Arab origin, and especially those belonging to the Nusra Front.”
“In my humble opinion, the Reihanli bombing was perpetrated by this extremist Jihadist movement, in response to the harassment by the Alawites of Iskendrun. But Turkey accuses the Syrian regime of perpetrating it. The ball is now in the Turkish court. Will Erdogan react? Where? How? Or will he remain silent, settling for support of the revolution across the border?”
Imam might be on to something. Turkish demonstrators on the Syrian border on Monday called for Turkish non-intervention in the Syrian crisis. “Remove your hands from Syria,” they chanted, calling for the removal of “Jihadist killers” from the city of Reihanli, Al-Jazeera reports.
