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07.10.03, 17:47
The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, today accused the Israeli
government of attempting to provoke a war when it sent fighter
planes to bomb a purported terrorist camp near Damascus on
Sunday.
In his first comments to the media since Israeli bombers struck
Syrian territory for the first time in 20 years, Mr Assad told
the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat that the attack was "an attempt
by the Israeli government to extract itself from its big crisis
by trying to terrorise Syria and drag it and the region into
other wars".
"This [Israeli] government is one of war, and war is the
justification for its existence," he said.
Sunday's airstrike hit what Israel called a camp of the
Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, about 15 miles from
the Syrian capital, Damascus. The attack came as retaliation
for a suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Haifa on Saturday
in which 19 people were killed. Islamic Jihad claimed
responsibility for the bombing.
No one was killed in the Israeli strike. Villagers said the
militants' camp had been abandoned years ago.
Mr Assad told the London-based paper: "There is no doubt that
the role Syria plays in the various issues in our region is
painful to this [Israeli] government. What happened [on Sunday]
was a failed Israeli attempt to undercut this role. We can,
with full confidence, say that what happened will only make
Syria's role more effective and influential in events in the
region - contrary to what this [Israeli] government wants."
Mr Assad did not say how Syria would respond to the attack.
Syria presented a motion to the UN security council on Sunday,
calling on the world body to condemn Israel. The council
postponed a vote. The US has warned it would veto any motion
that did not also condemn the Haifa bombing.
Asked about pressure from the US, which has accused Syria of
supporting terrorists and allowing fighters to cross into Iraq,
Mr Assad said: "We are not a superpower, but we are not a weak
state either. We're not a country without cards ... We are not
a state that can be ignored in the issues under discussion."
He said he believed Syria's dialogue with Washington should
continue, but he also accused the US of using Syria as a
scapegoat.
"In reality, if the US failed in the farthest part of Asia ...
it would blame Syria and Iran - this is taken for granted," Mr
Assad said.
On Sunday, the US state department said Syria "must cease
harbouring terrorists and make a clean break from those
responsible for planning and directing terrorist action from
Syrian soil".
Mr Assad defended his government's giving sanctuary to
Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which the
EU and the US list as terrorist organisations.
"It is not important to call them terrorist or not terrorist.
There are existing forces that you must deal with," Mr Assad
said. He added he did not regard such groups as terrorist and
their members in Syria had not broken the law.
Turning to US accusations on Iraq, Mr Assad implied his
government could not have perfect control over Syria's long
desert border with Iraq.
"There is big chaos" in Iraq, he said. "There is arms smuggling
and persons [crossing the border] and we don't know who they
are. Of course, the Americans say that they are terrorists ...
Maybe, for them, any Arab is a terrorist."
Syria, which fought Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, has
taken the hardest line among Arab states in peace negotiations
with Israel, refusing to recognise the Jewish state and
insisting on the complete return of all captured territory.
Peace talks between the two states were suspended indefinitely
in 2000.