Syria Ready if ‘War is Imposed’: al-Assad on Israel

Damascus stands ready if "war is imposed" by Israel as regional tensions rise and hopes for peace fade, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanese television Wednesday, reports AFP.

"We are faced with an enemy that has shown until this day that it understands nothing but the language of force, and it seems that peace in the region is not in the horizon," Assad said in an interview in Arabic with the Hezbollah-run Al-Manar television late Wednesday.

His statement came amid heightened tension in the region and concern in Lebanon over recent Israeli threats against Shiite militant party Hezbollah and its backers Syria and Iran.

Assad said the current tension, which he described as a "state of no-war, no-peace," would inevitably lead to either war or peace.

"Do we have any hope in the Israeli government? No. But we do believe that Israel is left with no choice but peace," he said.
"But when war is imposed on you, you wage that war irrespective of the balance of power," he added.

Israel and Syria in 2008 launched Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks which failed at the end of that year when Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza.

In December 2009, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman dismissed indirect talks with Syria through Turkish mediation, calling instead for direct talks, to be held in Damascus and Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was moving towards again accepting Turkey as a mediator to restart the stalled peace talks.