July 23, 2013 16:02
by Pesach Benson
Trying to create an Alawite rump state, is Bashar Assad worried Israel will play spoiler?
Is Bashar Assad seeking an Israeli green light for an Alawite rump state? In the middle of an article about Sunnis being ethnically cleansed from Alawite areas, The Guardian drops this humdinger:
A mediator – a well-known diplomatic figure – is understood to have been asked by Assad to approach the former Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, late last year with a request that Israel not stand in the way of attempts to form an Alawite state, which could have meant moving some displaced communities into the Golan Heights area.
A source aware of the talks said that Lieberman had not rebuffed the approach but had first sought information on the whereabouts of a missing Israeli airman shot down over Lebanon, Ron Arad, as well as three Israeli soldiers captured in the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub in 1982, and the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy intelligence officer who was caught and executed in Damascus.
Source material can be found at this site.
