BICOM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is doomed and his exit is a “blessing” for the Middle East, Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the World Policy Conference in Vienna, Sunday. Barak added that the Assad regime would be forced out of power “within weeks” and that this would be a “blow to the Iran-Hezbollah axis.”

“We are witnesses these days to battles between Assad-family loyalists and rebel forces. This is a continuation of the deterioration of the regime’s hold on power. Assad has already killed over 4,000 people in the streets of Syria, and his regime is heading towards its end,” the defense minister said.

Syrian security forces on Sunday killed at least 18 people in several areas of the country that observed a general strike to protest the government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, said the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, an online opposition group.

Sunday also saw hundreds of army defectors in southern Syria engaged against armored loyalist forces in the biggest armed confrontations in the nine-month uprising, according to residents and activists.

Meanwhile, in related news, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said yesterday that Paris believes Syria was behind the roadside bombing attack on French UNIFIL troops in Lebanon earlier this week. “We have strong reason to believe these attacks came from there (Syria),” Juppe said on RFI radio. “We think it’s most probable, but I don’t have proof.” The attack wounded five French troops on Friday and marks the fifth attack on the UN peacekeeping force positioned in southern Lebanon. Juppe said that Hezbollah, Syria’s close allies, was behind the attack.

France has been vocal in calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and cease the violence against anti-regime protesters. Western officials believe that the latest attack shows that Assad may be targeting countries that are calling for him to step down and let go of power.