Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
Jointly published by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum
  Vol. 2   No. 9 Table of Contents
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5 October 2000 


Intelligence Briefs: Syria

Damascus reportedly refuses to receive Arafat (4 September 2000)
Ba'ath party command in Aleppo purged (4 September 2000)
Communist party calls for end to state of emergency (4 September 2000)
Israel detects Syrian Scud-D test launch (23 September 2000)
Syrian security cuts phone lines of EC mission (28 September 2000)

Damascus reportedly refuses to receive Arafat
4 September 2000

Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat

Al-Majd (Amman) reported today that Syrian Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam recently told a delegation from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], led by Secretary-General Abu-Ali Mustafa [a.k.a. Mustafa al-Zibri], that Syria refuses to permit Yasser Arafat to visit Damascus and meet with President Bashar Assad. A Palestinian source said that Khaddam told Abu-Ali Mustafa that Syria "will not provide a cover for Arafat's plans to sign agreements" with Israel.

Ba'ath party command in Aleppo purged
4 September 2000

Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London) reported today that the Syrian regime has purged the local Ba'ath party leadership in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city, the first step in a comprehensive plan to "renew" the party command at the local level throughout the country. An official Syrian source told the paper that all of the members of the party command in Aleppo were replaced, except for Jamilah Hijazi.

Communist party calls for end to state of emergency
4 September 2000

Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London) reported today that the Syrian Communist Party, led by Yusuf al-Faisal, has demanded that the Syrian regime lift the state of emergency that has been in place since 1963 and that "exceptional laws" be cancelled. The Communist Party also called for "the pillars of civilian society" to be strengthened.

Israel detects Syrian Scud-D test launch
23 September 2000

Israeli Chief of Staff Sha'ul Mufaz said that the radar for Israel's Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile system, Green Pine, discovered the launch of a Syrian Scud-D missile earlier today. "Thanks to the technological ability of the defense industries and the Arrow we managed to detect the test," he told a group of military correspondents. Mufaz said that Syria is working to improve its missile capability and that the range of the Scud-D covers all of Israel. "We are continuing to follow what is happening in this field, and I think we also have the ability to respond to these type of threats if needed," Mufaz added.

Syrian security cuts phone lines of EC mission
28 September 2000

Foreign Report (London) reported that Syrian security services recently cut the phone lines of the European Commission's office in Damascus, apparently because its staff was accessing the Internet by dialing into ISP's in neighboring Lebanon. In Syria, it is legal to access the Internet only through the state-run Telecommunications Establishment. Interestingly, the Syrian foreign ministry responded to complaints from EC representatives by claiming to be unaware of and "appalled" by the illegal surveillance. [See Bashar's Controlled Experiment with the Internet, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, September 2000.]

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