US, Israel plotting to overthrow Assad: Report

American defense officials are reportedly in talks with their Israeli counterparts plotting to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that US officials worked on contingency plans for a collapse of the Syrian government, focusing particularly on the chemical weapons that “Syria is thought to possess.”

The talks focused on whether Israel might move to “destroy Syrian weapons facilities,” two US administration officials said.

An unnamed White House official also said US President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Thomas Donilon, was in Israel over the weekend to discuss the Syrian unrest.

This is while Russia and China on Thursday blocked a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, which has been the scene of violence since March 2011.

Washington immediately condemned the decision of China and Russia to veto the resolution against President Assad.

The veto is a “highly regrettable decision that will, I think, have repercussions for the countries that vetoed the resolution for a long time, in terms of how they’re viewed by the Syrian people,” Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney said.