By Stan Goodenough
Apr 10, 2008
Syria's government declared Wednesday plans to hold a nationwide emergency drill in the coming days, purportedly to prepare for a natural disaster.
The announcement, which was made by Prime Minister Mohammed Naji al-Otari, comes as Israel winds down its biggest national emergency drill in years - a drill Damascus earlier slammed as threatening regional stability.
According to Ynetnews, Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani stressed the drill would serve to facilitate coordination between the various emergency authorities, helping them "all work together in times of crisis, to ease their subsequent damage as much as possible."
While Syrian's armed forces would be involved, their role would be simply to "assist" the civilian authorities.
Israel is likely to monitor the drill as closely, if not more so, than Syria monitored Israel's.
Tensions have been running high for weeks between the Jewish state and its northern Arab neighbors, at times igniting rumors of imminent war.