An Israeli deputy minister was planning to meet members of the Syrian opposition in the offices of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) in Vienna later on Tuesday, but the meeting was called off the last minute by the Israeli official FPOe spokesman revealed.
The Israeli official is Ayoob Kara, deputy minister for development of the Negev and Galilee, and he was planning to meet five Syrian opposition members, the names of whom were not revealed, said spokesman Karl-Heinz Gruensteidl.
FPOe chief Heinz-Christian Strache was planning to brief the press about the outcome of the meeting on Wednesday morning, Gruensteidl told the Austrian news agency APA.
The main topic of the discussions was post-Assad Syria, Gruensteidl said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, under fire over the violent clampdown against pro-democracy protests sweeping his country.
The meeting was engineered by the Vienna-based FPOe politician David Lasar, who suggested that Kara who is a member of the Likud pary would be taking part as the personal envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, APA reported.
“Europe is doing nothing. The US is doing nothing. The whole world is just waiting,” Lasar said.
The Austrian far-right party had made its offices available for the talks, buit would only act as mediator, Lasar added.
Gruensteidl told reporters on Tuesday : We regret to advise the meeting was canceled ”
The Israeli Radio confirmed that the meeting was canceled citing security reasons as the main cause of the cancellation . The station also said the decision was taken to avoid further deterioration in the Israeli Syrian relations
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