Liberman: World must intervene in Syria

FM decries "killing you only see in Hollywood"; 'Washington Post' quotes US officials as saying Iran aiding Assad.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

MARCH 4, 2012 09:18

Foreign Minsiter Avigdor Lieberman 311 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS/Uriel Sinai) — Foreign Minsiter Avigdor Lieberman 311 (R)

(photo credit: REUTERS/Uriel Sinai)

The international community must intervene to end the massacres in Syria, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Sunday in an interview with Army Radio.

"These sights of killing, you only see in Hollywood - we must put and end to this immediately," Liberman said.

"In this case we must leave political calculations aside," Liberman said. "We are humans first, before we are politicians, leaders, commentators and journalists. What is happening there in the 21st century is intolerable, and we must help."

Liberman added that Israel would provide humanitarian aid to Syria if it was requested to do so, but would not act alone.

Meanwhile on Sunday, The Washington Post quoted US officials as saying that Iran is increasing its supply of arms and other aid to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has played a key role in the intensification of the government's crackdown on dissidents.

"The aid from Iran is increasing, and is increasingly focused on lethal assistance,” the Post quoted one of the officials as saying.

The US intelligence assessments appeared to support claims by the Syrian opposition that hundreds of Iranian military advisers, security officials and intelligence operatives have been sent into Syria along with weapons, electronic surveillance equipment and money.

“They’ve supplied equipment, weapons and technical assistance — even monitoring tools — to help suppress unrest,” a US official was quoted as saying by the Post. “Iranian security officials also traveled to Damascus to help deliver this assistance.”

The Free Syria Army, an armed opposition group fighting Assad, released a video in late January purporting to show seven Iranians, including five members of the Revolutionary Guard, captured in Homs, Al Arabiya reported.

“I am Sajjad Amirian, a member the Revolutionary Guards of the Iranian armed forces. I am a member of the team in charge of cracking down on protesters in Syria and we receive our orders directly from the security division of the Syrian Air Force in Homs,” Al Arabiya quoted one of the captives as saying.

“I urge Mr. [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei to work on securing our release and return to our homes,” he added.

The Free Syria Army said that five of the men were military agents working with Syrian Air Force intelligence and two showed “civilian status” as employees in a Homs power plant. The opposition group added that all seven men entered Syria during the uprising.

Iran has denied that the men were military agents.

Reuters contributed to this report.