Syria We'll join conflict if Israeli troops approach

Reuters | July 23 2006

Syria will enter the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict if Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon and approach Syria, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in an interview published on Sunday.

"If Israel invades Lebanon over ground and comes near to us, Syria will not sit tight. She will join the conflict," He told newspaper ABC.

"We have cooperation forces on alert," He added. "If Israeli troops provoke us, Damascus will act to guarantee the national security of Syrian territory."

Bilal was in Madrid for talks with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU envoy to the Middle East, and said he welcomed Spain's willingness to take on a mediating role in the conflict.

US blasted

He criticized the United States for not working towards a ceasefire.

"Are they waiting for Israel to destroy Lebanon and for it to have to be evacuated completely?" He said.

Bilal denied Syria was bankrolling Hizbullah, but said the group had Damascus' moral support and sympathy.

Syria is a main backer of Hizbullah, whose fighters captured Israeli soldiers in a cross-border operation that sparked violent Israeli reprisals that have so far claimed more than 350 lives, mostly civilians in Lebanon.

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