Israel: "Syria cannot curb Hezbollah"

Link

Reuters, here

"... Amos Gilad, a top adviser to Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, told an international security conference at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre that Iran's influence over Shi'ite Hezbollah appeared to be far greater than that of neighbouring Syria.

"Hezbollah is an entity. 'Hezbollahstan' is much more powerful than Lebanon itself," Gilad said, according to an official transcript of his speech in English. "If Iran gets the nuclear (bomb), for sure it'll be more significant."

"In the past, we could have packaged (a) deal with Syria that could include the terror in Lebanon, because the Syrians had their ways of convincing the Hezbollah to give up terror if they had the intention to do it," Gilad said.

"Now 'Hezbollahstan' is so powerful, I'm not sure Syria could deliver this."....

"There is no nuclear threat to Israel right now because Libya gave up its nuclear programme (in 2003)," Gilad said. Syria, we can say, also has given up its (nuclear) option, involuntarily. Iran does not have it yet."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 5:34 PM