WikiLeaks: ’Syria would drop Iran for peace with Israel’

 Jerusalem Post--IDF intelligence official Baidatz: Assad would be willing to pull away from Teheran’s orbit, according to State Dept. cable last year.  

Syria would end its alliance with Iran in exchange for peace with Israel and greater US involvement in the process, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence’s Research Directorate, told a top American official last year, according to a US diplomatic cable published on Monday by Wikileaks.
The cable documented a meeting between Baidatz and other top Israeli officials with US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Ambassador Alexander Vershbow in November 2009.

During the meeting, Baidatz said that according to Israeli intelligence assessments, if Syria were able to achieve peace with “security” and obtain greater US involvement, it would be willing to pull away from Iran’s orbit.

According to the US cable, Baidatz said that if Syrian President Bashar Assad were forced to choose between peace with Israel and Iran and his “negative assets” – Hamas and Hizbullah – he would choose peace. Such a peace, Baidatz said, would be detrimental for Hizbullah, which relies heavily on Syrian support.

“It would be a gradual process before Hizbullah could completely wean itself from the Syrian support apparatus and that, ultimately, both Hizbullah’s and Iran’s flexibility would be significantly reduced,” Baidatz said, according to the cable.

In the cable from 2009, Baidatz briefed Vershbow on Iran’s nuclear program and said the Islamic Republic was one year away from obtaining a nuclear weapon and two-and-a-half years away from assembling a nuclear arsenal of three weapons. By 2012, Iran would be able to build one weapon within weeks and an arsenal within six months. Continued
 

Iran families urge UN action on terror

Press TV--The families of the victims of the latest terrorist attack in Iran have called on the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take immediate action to fight terrorismIn a letter to the UN chief, Iran’s Justice Supporters’ Association said the recent terror attack in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar once again proved that terror groups will never abandon their inhumane acts, and that the international community is constantly suffering under the shadow of their threats and terror.
 

"The events in Chabahar were the consequence of long-term support by certain governments for terrorist organizations for temporary and political interests," the letter read.
 The incidents were also the result of years of passivity and silence of international organizations vis-a-vis terrorist groups. Although these groups are well-known all over the world, they continue their inhumane acts unhindered, and take the lives of innocent people in the most violent forms," it added.
 

The association also emphasized that all international governments and organizations which back terrorist groups or remain tight-lipped on their measures are responsible for the killing of a six-month baby who was among the victims of Chabahar terrorist attack.
 Comprising the families of 16,000 victims of terrorism in the Islamic Republic, Iran’s Justice Supporters Association also called on the United Nations, as the most important international organization, to take serious and practical steps in accordance with its commitments stated in the UN Charter to prevent such events which kill innocent people every day and threaten peace and security.
 The United Nations should take a serious measure and draw up an appropriate strategy to identify the perpetrators, facilitators and supporters of these terrorist groups and to administer justice against all those who are involved in anti-human measures," the letter added.
 

At least 38 mourners -- including women and children -- were killed and more than 90 wounded in two separate terrorist attack in the city of Chabahar in Sistan-Baluchestan Province on December 15.
 The mourners were commemorating the anniversary of the martyrdom of the third Shia Imam, Imam Hussein (PBUH.
 

Anti-Iran terrorist group Jundallah has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. 
 Iran says the perpetrators behind the Chabahar terrorist attack were trained and equipped by foreign elements beyond the country’s eastern borders in Pakistan.