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Visitors overlooking the Israeli border with Syria on Saturday. (Dror Arzi/Jini)
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Ex-UN envoy: IAF action in Syria is 'message to Iran' over nukes
By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Former United Nations ambassador John Bolton said Sunday that Israel's reported military operation inside Syria earlier this month should be regarded as a 'clear message to Iran' that its nuclear efforts will not be ignored by the international community.

"I think it would be unusual for Israel to conduct a military operation inside Syria other than for a very high value target, and certainly a Syrian effort in the nuclear weapons area would qualify," Bolton told Channel 10 in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"I think this is a clear message not only to Syria, I think it's a clear message to Iran as well, that its continued efforts to acquire nuclear weapons are not going to go unanswered," Bolton said
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Bolton, who has long called for a hard line against the Syrian and Iranian regimes, did not indicate that he had first-hand information about the incident.

The U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times quoted an Israeli source on Sunday as saying that Syria had been planning a "devastating surprise" for Israel, in the wake of reports that the Israel Air Force carried out an air strike against a North Korean nuclear shipment to Syria.

The paper quoted Israeli sources as saying that planning for the strike began shortly after Meir Dagan, chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in late spring with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.

Dagan apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles, the paper reported.

"This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel," the Sunday Times quoted an Israeli source as saying. "We've known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can't live with a nuclear warhead."

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday that a senior North Korean official denied a Washington Post report that Pyongyang was giving nuclear expertise to Syria. The report suggested intelligence including satellite images revealed a facility in Syria which may be used to build nuclear warheads.

"They often say things that are groundless," Yonhap quoted deputy chief of the North Korean mission to the United Nations Kim Myong-gil as saying in response to the Post report.

When asked to elaborate Kim hung up the phone, Yonhap reported.

The U.K. newspaper The Observer reported Sunday that Israel's reported strike on Syria involved as many as eight aircraft.

According to the report, the force included F-15s and F-16s equipped with Maverick missiles and 500 pound bombs.

Flying among the warplanes at great height, The Observer reported, was an electronic intelligence gathering aircraft.

According to the Times report, an IAF commando team that had arrived on the ground days earlier directed laser beams at the target for the jets.

Meanwhile, the weekly German news magazine reported Sunday that a German intelligence ship stationed off the coast of Lebanon as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force identified two F-15 jets entering Syrian airspace.

Syria's ambassador to Washington over the weekend denied foreign media reports that an Israel Air Force strike on his country 10 days ago targeted a nuclear project being undertaken with the cooperation of North Korea.

According to the foreign press reports, the target of the IAF raid was a Syrian nuclear installation that was constructed in the northeastern corner of the country, with North Korean assistance.

In an interview to Newsweek, Imad Moustapha called the reports "absolutely, totally, fundamentally ridiculous and untrue."

"There are no nuclear North Korean-Syrian facilities whatsoever in Syria," Moustapha said.

On Saturday, The Washington Post published an article saying the IAF strike was aimed at a shipment that had arrived in Syria aboard a North Korean vessel three days earlier, and may have included equipment and materials related to nuclear technology
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  3.   The reality 06:07  |  Mark Lincoln 16/09/07
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  5.   Truth from government? Not possible 06:20  |  Natallie Durson 16/09/07
  6.   Syria`s denial 06:22  |  Edifice 16/09/07
  7.   OUTRAGEOUS ACT !!!! 08:15  |  Samy 16/09/07
  8.   # 3 Natallie Durson 08:30  |  ChanahS 16/09/07
  9.   A Cock and bull Story 08:33  |  Clickfool 16/09/07
  10.   WHAT A GREAT VICTORY FOR ISRAEL!!! 08:45  |  Robert 16/09/07
  11.   Assad says.... 09:02  |  inisrael 16/09/07
  12.   #5, Samy from LA 09:17  |  Silvienne 16/09/07
  13.   syrian NBC 09:21  |  wiseUP 16/09/07
  14.   RE;syria attacks 09:25  |  Neil 16/09/07
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  16.   you make Assad stronger 09:27  |  Armando Vargas 16/09/07
  17.   To Samy 09:29  |  Michael 16/09/07
  18.   Watch out what you ask for Samy 09:29  |  Larry 16/09/07
  19.   Robert.Great victory in a battle to lose the war 09:29  |  truth 16/09/07
  20.   #1 mark L - ever ready to jump to conclusions 09:33  |  CK Tan 16/09/07
  21.   clickfool - thank you for the explanation 09:37  |  CK Tan 16/09/07
  22.   Assad and Sunnis 09:40  |  Armando Vargas 16/09/07
  23.   Kicking butt 09:40  |  Yoav Naor 16/09/07
  24.   Clickfool - check out todays Guardian/Observer 09:41  |  British Academic 16/09/07
  25.   Stike, Stike till victory 09:42  |  Pinchas 16/09/07
  26.   poeple of Syria and Isreal lose 09:48  |  Armando Vargas 16/09/07
  27.   Syrian Samy In LA 09:49  |  Yosemite 16/09/07
  28.   TRUTH.Sending suicide bombers,Qassems,fight a proxy war 09:52  |  PETER S.M. 16/09/07
  29.   # 4 panther 10:02  |  Axel 16/09/07
  30.   Armando Vargas 10:03  |  Yosemite 16/09/07
  31.   # 20 ck tan 10:09  |  Axel 16/09/07
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  33.   AXEL Re"total destruction"You must hate Global Jihad and its aims 10:32  |  PETER S.M. 16/09/07
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  36.   #9 and who knows better than the streak? 10:53  |  victor hardman 16/09/07
  37.   Questions. 10:54  |  Maureen Ann 16/09/07
  38.   nuttalie #5 10:59  |  Jo Jo 16/09/07
  39.   Insight out of Singapore 11:01  |  Jasmine Murphy 16/09/07
  40.   For panther on Syria #4 11:05  |  Jonathan S 16/09/07
  41.   For British Academic 11:11  |  Clickfool 16/09/07
  42.   I wonder 11:14  |  cesare 16/09/07
  43.   #9 A Click and Bull Story 11:14  |  51 shekels 16/09/07
  44.   An interesting revelation about German navy hoax 11:18  |  Jonathan S 16/09/07
  45.   Not in my Name 11:21  |  Angelo Tito Anselmi 16/09/07
  46.   Encouraging Back to the good old days 2 11:27  |  Shalom Freedman 16/09/07
  47.   keep assad 11:33  |  wiseUP 16/09/07
  48.   Israel saves the world again, 11:38  |  Ken Jurist 16/09/07
  49.   For Clickfool - Hell No, We won`t Glow 11:51  |  Desert Rat 16/09/07
  50.   AFP have a good retrospective on this 11:54  |  Rowan Berkeley 16/09/07
  51.   British Academic 1, Clickfool 0 11:54  |  Theodor 16/09/07
  52.   CFOOL changeing the subject when cornered 11:55  |  PETER S.M. 16/09/07
  53.   the PR is getting 11:59  |  cool 16/09/07
  54.   Elef-laila-ve-laila..... 12:04  |  Esther 16/09/07
  55.   Kids this is not a football game 12:05  |  FOX 16/09/07
  56.   airstrike 12:09  |  Matt 16/09/07
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  58.   There are no nuclear facilities in Syria 12:11  |  stork 16/09/07
  59.   idf ground comando 12:11  |  scanadu 16/09/07
  60.   Tosefta the parrot awaiting orders from Jafar 12:15  |  FOX 16/09/07
  61.   For Desert Rat # 44 12:16  |  Clickfool 16/09/07
  62.   The Answer Will come From Our Side 12:19  |  Samir Salameh 16/09/07
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  64.   israel, israel 12:26  |  charles 16/09/07
  65.   PANTHER 12:27  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 16/09/07
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  69.   CK TAN/ MY COMPLIMENTS 12:40  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 16/09/07
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  78.   50 oooooooo we SCARED NOW!! 12:51  |  JON FEIGENBAUM 16/09/07
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