Israel admits 2007 air raid on Syrian nuclear reactor
ISRAEL: Israel’s air strike on a Syrian nuclear facility a decade ago sends ‘‘a clear message’’ to its enemies in the Middle East, the Israeli government said as it declassified details of the 2007 bomb attack.
The world has known for more than 10 years that it was Israeli jets that bombed the desert facility at Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, but yesterday the Israeli military publicly confirmed it.
General Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the Israeli military, said the message sent in 2007 is that ‘‘Israel will not accept the construction of a capability that threatens the existence of the State of Israel’’.
He added: ‘‘That was the message in 1981 [when Israel bombed a reactor in Iran]. That was the message in 2007. And that is the message to our enemies for the future.’’
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said: ‘‘Israel’s policy has been and remains consistent – to prevent our enemies from acquiring nuclear weapons.’’
The newly released Israeli files claim that North Korea helped Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad build his nuclear capability. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister at the time, tried to convince the George W Bush administration to bomb the reactor. When the US refused, Olmert authorised a unilateral strike.
Israel’s government believed that if it kept its involvement in the strike a secret, Syria’s regime would not feel compelled to launch a full-scale war in response. The calculation proved accurate and Assad said nothing publicly about the Israeli destruction of his nuclear reactor.
Israeli officials pointed out that parts of Deir Ezzor later fell to Isis, raising the prospect that the jihadist group might have taken control of the nuclear facility in 2014 if Israel had not already destroyed it.
The Israeli military did not say why it was declassifying intelligence about the attack now. Israeli journalists had been fighting a court battle to try to make it public and Olmert’s forthcoming autobiography is expected to discuss the strike. – Telegraph Group