Syria Planned Border Battles With Israel

The Washington Times reports:

A leaked Syrian government document shows that the regime orchestrated last month’s border clashes with Israel.

Syrian security forces were told to grant free passage to 20 protester-filled buses and to allow them to cross the cease-fire line with Israel, according to the memorandum, which was which was obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

“All security, military, and contingent units … are hereby ordered to grant permission of passage to all twenty vehicles (47 passenger capacity) with the attached plate numbers that are scheduled to arrive at ten in the morning on Sunday May 15, 2011 without being questioned or stopped until it reaches or frontier defense locations,” the document says.

“Permission is hereby granted allowing approaching crowds to cross the cease fire line (with Israel) towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms, and to further allow them to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents and offices.”

“It is essential to ensure that no one carries military identification or a weapon as they enter with a strict emphasis on the peaceful and spontaneous nature of the protest,” the note adds.

The memorandum also describes an “urgent meeting” between the army’s deputy chief of staff and senior intelligence officials in a Syrian province adjacent to the Israeli border.

The document, which bears the Syrian state emblem and the signature of the mayor of Al-Qunaitera province, is dated May 14, 2011, the day before the clashes, which took place alongside smiliar rushes on Israel’s borders with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.