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October 14, 2005
Shalom: Assad Turned the World against Syria
As I reported last Wednesday, the possibility of Syrian Interior Minister Kenaan’s death being involuntary suicide is now becoming a reality in and outside Syria by much of the international community. The articles which follow, from the Jerusalem Post and DEBKAfile, are indicative of that assumption.
BEGIN ARTICLE 1 FROM THE JERUSALEM POST
Shalom: Assad Turned the World Against Syria
By JPost Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
October 14, 2005
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom claimed that Israel does not yet know the full circumstances leading to Syrian Interior Minister Brig.-Gen. Ghazi Kenaan’s death, but noted that there were murder cases in the past that had been presented as suicide.
Shalom suggested that Kenaan’s death should be understood in the context of
the tremendous pressure that was being applied to Syrian President Bashar Assad by the international community.
Shalom stated in an interview to Israel Radio Friday morning, that by supporting terror, Assad managed to unite the whole world against him.
Official sources in Jerusalem doubted that Ghazi Kenaan would commit suicide voluntarily, and he may not have had any other choice.
They said that it was a reasonable assumption that this was an attempt to prevent him from revealing incriminating information against Assad.
END ARTICLE 1 FROM THE JERUSALEM POST
BEGIN ARTICLE 2 FROM THE DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Syrian military and security forces are on the highest alert in the mountain strongholds of the ruling Alawi clans east of Latakia
October 14, 2005, 1:17 PM (GMT+02:00)
They are braced for a vendetta within the Alawi community of which President Bashar Assad and his supporters are leading members. They fear that at least two clans may reject the official claim that interior minister Ghazi Kenaan died by his own hand Wednesday and seek revenge.
Assad had thought to appoint Kenaan’s successor – most likely a former interior minister Hassan Harabe – without delay. He was deterred by a warning that he could no longer rely on the loyalty of the security and intelligence services ruled by the dead minister.
There has been speculation in Washington and Damascus that the Assad may have made former Lebanon strongman and pillar of his regime the scapegoat should the UN Hariri investigators point the finger at top Syrian circles when their report comes out on Oct. 21. DEBKAfile’s Syria observers report that the last high Syrian military alert occurred in 2000 towards the end of Bashar’s father president Hafez Assad term when prime minister Mahmoud Zouaby, a Sunni, killed himself after he was imprisoned on corruption charges.
The only time before that was in 1968 when Syrian military intelligence chief Gen. Abndel Karim al Jundi, an Ismaili, committed suicide.
END ARTICLE 2 FROM THE DEBKAfile