Amid a growing assertion of the Israeli Mossad's responsibility for the assassination of Syrian Scientist Aziz Esber, the Israeli army announced on Tuesday a new round of drills in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
“Across the way we see the Syrian military, which is not satisfied with just taking over all of Syrian territory but is expressly building a broad-based, new ground army that will return to its previous proportions and beyond,” Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters during a tour of the occupied Golan Heights.
In a Twitter statement, Lieberman said that Israel’s tanks, deployed on parts of the strategic plateau that it captured from Syria in a 1967 war, were “our crushing strike force and will know how to defend the border in any eventuality.”
The Israeli army was ready for “any scenario” in Syria, he said, adding that his country was “closely monitoring” developments in the war-torn country.
Meanwhile, the assassination Esber has been at the center of talks in Israel during the last two days. Without acknowledging that Israel is behind the operation, there seems to be more than one party in Tel Aviv interested in showing Israel’s strong role in the case.
The New York Times revealed Tuesday that the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) assassinated the Syrian scientist a few days ago. The newspaper said, quoting a senior officer in the apparatus, that explosives were planted inside the car of the weapons expert, instantly killing him and his driver.
The newspaper quoted a senior intelligence official in the Middle East as saying that the Mossad was behind the killing of Esber, because the latter was working on developing precision-guided missiles, and the assassination was carried out, according to the newspaper, for fear of developing these missiles and launching them in the future towards Israeli cities hundreds of kilometers away from Syria.
Although Israel did not acknowledge its responsibility and refused to comment on the news, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday welcomed the killing of the Syrian weapons scientist.
AFP quoted Katz as saying: “We don’t of course comment on reports of this kind and I’m not going to comment now.”
“I can say that assuming the details of this man’s activities are correct and he was engaged in developing chemical weapons and longer-range missiles capable of hitting Israel, I certainly welcome his demise,” he added.
