* Defence minister says he is returning his gas mask
* Old foes pin hopes on Assad's hold on toxic arsenal
JERUSALEM, July 30 (Reuters) - Israel played down on Monday
the risk from Syria's chemical weapons, in what appeared to be a
new tack after threats to take military action to prevent the
arsenal falling into Islamist hands.
Israel has been particularly worried that Hezbollah, the
Iranian-inspired Shiite militia in neighbouring Lebanon, may
gain access to the weapons should Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad's grip slip amid a 16-month-old insurgency.
Israel's warnings on this spread war fears and bumped up
demand for government-issued gas masks.
But since Syria last week acknowledged for the first time
that it had chemical weapons, saying they were secure and would
be used only as a last resort against "external aggression", the
Israelis have been voicing cautious confidence.
"Nothing will happen," Defence Minister Ehud Barak told
Israel Radio in an interview, joking that he would return his
gas mask.
"In my opinion, no one in the world would dare to use
chemical weapons against Israel. So nothing is going to happen."
Israel is believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the
region - something it has never acknowledged - giving it the
ability to deter or retaliate against any non-conventional
attack.
Hezbollah, a longtime Assad ally, has not commented on the
speculation that it might want Syria's chemical weapons.
Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive 2006 border war.
Barak has since said that in any new conflict Israel would
consider the whole of Lebanon fair game, given the militia's
role in Beirut politics.
Some Israeli officials have also worried that radical Sunni
Islamists among rebels fighting Assad may try to seize Syria's
chemical weapons. Another suggested scenario is that Assad could
use them against Israel in a suicidal last stand meant to secure
his legacy in the Arab world.
Israel is technically at war with Syria and occupies the
Golan Heights that it seized in the 1967 war and later annexed.
But the countries have not directly exchanged fire in three
decades, and a parliamentary briefing last week by the Israeli
armed forces chief about the risk of "uncontrollable
deterioration" in Syria were interpreted by local media as a
caution against opening a new fighting front with Assad.
"As long as the situation in Syria is still within Assad's
control, Israel has no reason to worry," Eitan Haber, former
spokesman for the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote in
the biggest-selling Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
"As long as they are in charge, the assumption is they will
not use this doomsday weapon - with an emphasis on 'as long'."
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Myra MacDonald)