The paper says Rumsfeld mulls how to drag Syria into a battlefield

WASHINGTON, January 25 (IslamOnline.net) – The toppling of the Syrian regime and the disbanding of Hizbullah resistance movement come high on the military agenda of the current U.S. administration, a prominent Arab-language newspaper reported on Sunday, January 25.

Washington is also planning to pressure Syria into stopping its support for Palestinian resistance groups and abandoning its alleged weapons programs, the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported citing a western intelligence periodical.

The periodical said Syria and Iran are now the most likely target for a regime change like Iraq and Afghanistan.

It added that the U.S. army had deployed more troops on the Iraqi-Syrian borders and U.S. warplanes had frequently violated the Syrian airspace.

Citing U.S. intelligence sources, the London-based daily said U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is also mulling to launch more "pre-emptive strikes" against the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah and Somalia.

Somali government source accused the United States last month of installing electronic espionage devices and cameras in a remote island in the country's territorial waters.

Rumsfeld also suggested striking Hizbullah's bases in Lebanon, which might drag Syria into the battlefield.

Asked to comment on the reports, a Pentagon spokesman dodged the question, saying any future military operation would be carried out if the U.S. administration gave the go-ahead.

The Pentagon "deliberately" leak the periodical's report in a daily publication issued by the State Department called "Early Bird", the paper said.

Analysts believe that the leak is intended for highlighting and confirming the report.

Rumsfeld's plans were also published in Israeli Jerusalem Post daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said.

Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush inked a bill to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria over its alleged support for "terrorism" and "occupation" of Lebanese territories.

Leading Senators, who voted down the bill, feared that the measure could later be used to build a case for a military intervention against Syria.

The report came as tensions between Hizbullah and Israel ran high last week when an Israeli military bulldozer violated the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line and was immediately destroyed by a Hizbullah missile.

It is the worst flare-up on the frontier since an Israeli air raid on an alleged Palestinian base in Syria in October 2003, the first attack on Syrian soil in three decades.  

Turkish Mediation

On the diplomatic front, Israel confirmed Saturday, January 24, it had accepted an offer by Turkey -- its only regional ally -- to mediate in possible talks with Syria.

"We have agreed to Turkey's offer of assistance in anything to do with the Syrian track," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He, however, denied that the move amounted to an Israeli acceptance of recent Syrian peace overtures.

A prominent Egyptian journalist revealed to IslamOnline.net last week that Syria had accepted to re-start peace talks with Israel from scratch but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set several preconditions.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he had received a positive response from both sides to Ankara's offer.

During previous talks, held under Hafez al-Assad, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's late father, then Israeli Premier Ehud Barak accepted in principle an Israeli pullout from the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967.

Talks broke off after Israel refused to withdraw from a narrow strip of land bordering the eastern bank of the Sea of Galilee.

The area is a grassy plateau overlooking north-eastern Israel and have important water resources - providing Israel with a third of its water needs.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav on January 12 invited Assad to visit occupied Jerusalem to "start" talks on a peace accord, with no preconditions but the Syrians rebuffed the invitation as "not serious".