Israeli Army Ends “War Readiness” on Syrian Border – Paper

Excerpt from report by Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on 29 August

[Report by Amir Rappaport: "Golan Heights Is Back to Normal"]

Following a very hot – in every sense – summer in the Golan Heights, there are indications that we can relax now that the winds of war that blew from the Syrian border over the past year, culminating in the past few months, have subsided. Military sources now opine that the threat of an imminent war has significantly decreased.

This view is based on an analysis of the intentions of the Syrian Army, whose operations have reverted to routine. Action taken by the IDF has also helped ease the tension: Exercises that were slated to take place on the Golan Heights have been relocated to southern Israel in a bid to allay the Syrian concerns. [passage omitted]

[A related unattributed report in Tel Ha'aretz (Internet Version- WWW) in English, left-of-centre, independent daily of record, at 0929 gmt adds that Israeli security officials, who "spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the information to the press," said that "the army's war-readiness status on the Israel-Syria border is now considered over."]

Originally published by Ma’ariv, Tel Aviv, in Hebrew 29 Aug 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.