In an interview with the Quwaiti newspaper Al-Anba, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said that his’ country’s army is drawing up plans for military confrontation with Israel.
Assad said Israel could attack Syria "at any moment."
"We must remain ready at all times," he said. "We have begun preparations within the framework of our options," noting that the Jewish States has already abandoned the so-called peace process.
Israeli military sources have revealed that Defence Minister Amir Peretz gave out orders on Thursday that the Israeli army remains on high alert. "Assad's declarations do not change the situation," said the source.
The Syrian President further stated that peace talks with Israel would not last more than six months, and that the entire process, including the implementation of the agreement, would not last more than two years.
"This is assuming that the other side, Israel, is genuine in the peace process," said Assad.
Although he said that almost 80 percent of the disputes between Israel and Syria have been resolved, leaving only "the easiest of issues [to resolve]," President Assad said "sometimes the final percent puts an end to the entire process," implying that the two states might engage in a military confrontation.
Assad has repeatedly warned that Syria's patience was running out due to the “peace process'” failure so solve the Golan Heights’s dispute between the two states.
Israel captured the Heights, a plateau on the border of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War (and again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War). In 1981, teh Jewish State applied its "laws, jurisdiction and administration" in the Golan Heights with the Golan Heights Law. The Heights are part of the governorate of Al Qunaytirah, and are perceived by the bulk of the international community considers as a Syrian territory under Israeli occupation, according to
Wikipedia.
Geographically, the Heights are bordered on the west by a rock escarpment that drops 1,700 feet (500 m) to the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River; on the south by the Yarmouk River; on the north by the international border with Lebanon, and on the east by a largely flat plain, called the Hauran. The Golan is usually divided into three regions: northern (between Nahals Sa'ar and Gilabon), central (between Nahals Gilabon and Dilayot), and southern (between Nahal Dilayot and the Yarmouk Valley). The Golan Heights themselves are between 400 and 1,700 feet (120–520 m) high.
Geologically, the Golan Heights are a plateau, and part of a Holocene volcanic field that extends northeast almost to Damascus. The entire area is scattered with inactive cinder cones such as Majdal Shams. Mount Hermon is in the northern Golan Heights but is geologically separate from the volcanic field. Near Hermon is a crater lake called Birkat Ram ("Ram Pool") which is fed by underground springs.
Historically, the region has been used as a base for Syrian and Fedayeen incursions and attacks on Israel. The Israeli army captured the Heights and put it under military administration from 1967 until 1981, when the Knesset passed "The Golan Heights Law", similar to its 1967 measures concerning Jerusalem. Most of the Arab residents of the Golan Heights, mainly Druze, are Syrian Arabs who retain their Syrian citizenship even though Israeli citizenship is available to them. Syria continues to offer them some benefits such as free university tuition.