Assad Gives Palestine-Liberation Group Green Light To Attack Israel, Group Claims

[DonViejo]

Source: AP/TPM

ALBERT AJI MAY 7, 2013, 9:19 AM

BEIRUT (AP) — President Bashar Assad’s regime has given a Palestinian militant group the go-ahead to set up missiles to attack Israel in the wake of recent Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital, a spokesman for the group said Tuesday.

Syria has hinted at possible retribution against Israel since the Jewish state carried out the airstrikes over the weekend, although official government statements have been relatively mild.

In that light, the Assad regime’s decision to allow a minor Syria-based Palestinian group to prepare for attacks is largely seen as a face-saving gesture unlikely to escalate the confrontation with Israel.

“Syria has given the green light to set up missile batteries to directly attack Israeli targets,” Anwar Raja of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command told The Associated Press.

Full article at link

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/assad-gives-palestine-liberation-group-green-light-to-attack-israel.php?ref=fpb

[azurnoir]

1. Palestinian source tells Haaretz: Assad's green light to strike Israel merely symbolic

A senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command told Haaretz on Tuesday that the green light given by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to respond to alleged Israeli strikes was not intended to spark an escalation on the Golan Heights front, but was rather an expression of the Syrian leadership's support for the Palestinians.

....................................

The source spoke to Haaretz in response to reports published earlier Tuesday in the Alawite Syrian newspaper Al-Watansaying that the Assad regime has given a green light to all relevant actors to respond immediately to any Israeli aggression and even allowed Palestinian factions to carry out operations against Israel from the Golan Heights.

According to Al-Watan, the regime is committed to providing these parties with weapons and ammunition, and listed a "bank of targets" inside Israel. Furthermore, the report alleged that the Syrian army had positioned officers on the ground, who were instructed to act immediately against any new Israeli aggression, and that missiles were positioned inside Israel.

However, the PFLP-GC source expressed doubts as to the viability of an escalation ensuing, saying it was likely to remain only a proclamation.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-source-tells-haaretz-assad-s-green-light-to-strike-israel-merely-symbolic.premium-1.519790

[leveymg]

3. The State Dept. '10 estimated the manpower of the PFLP-GC to be only in the hundreds, since reduced.

It's a splintered group whose leader has left Damascus that's been decimated by infighting. Largely a symbolic threat, if even that.

See, http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2007/103714.htm#ftn32

[Sand Wind]

2. Lol ! Assad, so coward : He give "permission" to an extern group to act on his name!

That dictator, mass-wholesale-murderer of his own people, what a shame he Is for Syria.

[azurnoir]

4. what do you mean by extern? if you mean external they are not

PFLP-GC is a Syria based group which split from the main group PFLP in the late 1960's

[Bosonic]

6. Probably not significant enough to justjfy an OP in itself, but...

Report: Internet traffic from Syria apparently disappears

https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/331873138889596929