BICOM

Noting the increasing instability in neighbouring Syria, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday announced that he plans to construct a fence along the length of Israel’s 45-mile frontier with Syria.

Last week Netanyahu toured a newly constructed fence, which spans almost the entirety of Israel’s 150-mile southern border with Egypt. Built over the course of the last two years, it has been credited with dramatically reducing the number of infiltrations into Israel by illegal migrants and reducing the threat of terrorist attacks. Referring to it at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said “We intend to erect an identical fence, with a few changes based on the actual territory, along the Golan Heights. We know that on the other side of our border with Syria today, the Syrian army has moved away, and in its place, global jihad forces have moved in.”

In recent months, errant fire from the internal conflict in Syria has strayed into Israeli territory on several occasions, prompting the IDF to fire warning shots in response. Yesterday Netanyahu warned that the regime of Syria’s President Assad is “very unstable.” He also reiterated concern over “the question of chemical weapons” in Syria, which could fall into dangerous hands and noted that intelligence is being coordinated with the United States “so that we might be prepared for any scenario and possibility that could arise.”

Meanwhile, in Syria itself, the violence looks set to continue as President Assad yesterday delivered his first public address in seven months, during which he rejected the prospect of dialogue with opposition leaders, describing them as “armed criminals, enemies of God and puppets of the West.”