JERUSALEM, 4 October 2005 — US officials have held talks with Israeli counterparts about the prospect of a regime change in Damascus and possible successors to President Bashar Assad, a newspaper report said yesterday. Government sources quoted by the Haaretz daily said senior American officials had expressed interest in Israel’s assessment of possible successors to Bashar, asking them who they believed could maintain regional stability.
The Israelis had in turn indicated that they would prefer to see a weakened Bashar in power, believing that the regime in Damascus would be greatly embarrassed by an upcoming report into the February assassination of the former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. There have been widespread allegations in Lebanon that Damascus had a hand in the killing.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was also quoted as telling the newspaper that Syria was still trying to exert influence in Lebanon despite the April withdrawal of its troops from its smaller neighbor. “The Syrians have not yet despaired of controlling Lebanon; they are doing it via Hezbollah, along with the Iranians,” Sharon said.
Bashar, meanwhile, has appealed to his Cabinet for national unity in the face of mounting international pressure, an official newspaper reported.
“A solid national unity and trust in the justice of our positions are necessary to face the pressure,” Bashar told the meeting Sunday, according to the Tishrin daily.
In another development, a Syrian rights group blasted yesterday what it called a series of “illegal” arrests in the northern part of the country. “Security forces arrested several Syrian citizens in Syria at the end of September,” the Syrian Human Rights Association (ADHS) said.
“ADHS denounces these illegal arrests which have been on the rise lately,” the group said, calling on “authorities to immediately free those detained.” The rights organization also appealed for families to be notified of their whereabouts and called on authorities to “bring them before a court that will guarantee their right to defense.”
