Syrian Missiles Back in Lebanon, Israel Says : Peres Sees New Deployment as Challenge That Could ‘Easily Deteriorate Into a Confrontation’

Syria has moved mobile surface-to-air missiles back into Lebanon’s strategic Bekaa Valley in a new challenge to what Israel considers its indispensable “freedom of the skies” in the area, Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday.

Other Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the inner Cabinet of senior Israeli government ministers reviewed the situation Wednesday but had not yet made any new decisions about it.

Less than two weeks ago, Israel made public a November move in which Syria had redeployed anti-aircraft missile batteries in and near Lebanon for the first time since June, 1982. Syria then withdrew some of those weapons after an Israeli warning was relayed to Damascus through Washington.

Now, Peres said, “there has been another deployment.”

Speaking at a Thursday lunch-eon meeting with Israeli newspaper editors in Tel Aviv, Peres added that “Israel does not want escalation and confrontation.” But he said the situation could “easily deteriorate into a confrontation” between Israel and Syria.

Initially, Peres’ comments were barred from publication by the military censor, but several hours later, the censorship was lifted without explanation.

In another sign of heightened tension, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned in comments released here Thursday that any attempted missile attack against Israeli population centers would be met with a “massive response” against Arab cities.

Without mentioning any specific Arab nation, a senior defense source commented: “Clearly there is a message to the Syrians in the sense: ‘Don’t push too far. Don’t play brinksmanship.’ ”

Rather than risk a showdown in this latest crisis over Syrian missiles, Israel has rerouted its reconnaissance patrols over Lebanon so they are out of range of the redeployed batteries.

The senior defense source said, however, that the danger of “conflagration or escalation” remains because Israel retains the prerogative to return to its previous routes over the Bekaa Valley “at a time that is convenient to us and that is commensurate with our needs.”

Another government source said that U.S. diplomatic efforts to restore the regional status quo are “not exhausted yet.” However, he added, there is concern here that Israel’s failure to respond militarily to the redeployment of the missiles is being read in Damascus as a sign of weakness that could invite further Syrian moves.

“The Syrians take steps with calculated risks,” the source commented. “They move step by step. And once they realize they take a step and there is no reaction, and then they take another step and (that) step meets the same non-reaction, they can draw conclusions.”

Exchanging Threats

Israel and Syria have been involved since mid-November in what Middle East experts call their sharpest exchange of threats since just before they clashed during the first days of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June, 1982.

The tension began Nov. 19 with the shooting down of two Syrian aircraft by Israeli fighters. Syria responded by moving SAM-2 missiles closer to its border with Lebanon and reintroducing mobile SAM-6 and SAM-8 batteries into the Bekaa Valley, along the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Damascus pulled those mobile missiles back within a few days, reportedly after Israel had issued a stern warning by way of Washington. However, sources here said Thursday that the SAM-6s and SAM-8s are now back in the Bekaa again.

SAM-2s Remain

Also, despite U.S. urging, the Syrians continue to refuse to return the SAM-2s to their earlier emplacements, which, before mid-November, were farther removed from both the Lebanese and Israeli borders than they are now. In addition, Damascus has announced pointedly that Syria is capable of striking deep within Israel if provoked.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesmen said the Defense Department has no information to either confirm or deny the reported Syrian missile movements.

A senior defense source here said that Israel is concerned that even more SAM-2 batteries may be moved up to the border. He said that Syria has additional, still unused forward emplacements ready for a further deployment.

This source said that the relatively old SAM-2s pose a relatively small military threat to modern Israeli jet fighters.

Escalation Feared

“But that’s not the point,” he said. “All past experience is that when the Syrians were in a position to fire, they did fire. (And) the point is the firing (which can) start an uncontrolled escalation. Then you have to respond . . . so you strike the missiles or something. And they add another missile--a longer range missile.”

It was in hopes of nipping that kind of escalation in the bud that Rabin issued the warning made public Thursday, the defense source said.

Rabin’s remarks, made Wednesday night, conceded that Syria has missiles capable of penetrating Israeli defenses and striking “large population centers.” However, he added, “the other side must know that for each attempted strike during a war, indiscriminately against . . . civilian population centers, there will be a massive Israeli response, using the same various means against the other side’s population centers.”

Earlier Wednesday, Rabin had denied published reports of a Syrian military buildup on the frontier of the strategic Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.