Strike on Syria: World reaction

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The Israeli air raid on Syrian territory has prompted concern and condemnation from many world leaders.
Israel informed Washington of the raid only hours after it took place.

US President George W Bush urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to avoid acts that would further aggravate hostility and set back peacemaking efforts.



The secretary general strongly deplores the Israeli air strike on Syrian territory

UN statement
A White House spokesman said the two men "agreed on the need to continue fighting terrorism... They also agreed on the need to avoid heightening tension in the region at this time".

However, an anonymous official added: "We have repeatedly told the government of Syria that it is on the wrong side in the war on terror and that it must stop harbouring terrorists. That is still our view."

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the air raid in a statement.

This aggression could drag the whole region into violent whirlpool

Arab League statement
"The secretary general strongly deplores the Israeli air strike on Syrian territory earlier today," the statement said.

"He is especially concerned that this further escalation of an already tense and difficult situation has the potential to broaden the scope of current conflicts in the Middle East, further threatening regional peace and security."

In Gaza, the military wing of the leading Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed in a statement on Sunday to exact revenge on Israel for the air raid.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi branded Israel's strike a "flagrant aggression and a violation of Syria's territorial integrity", but made no comment on the Israeli allegation that Iran funded the camp targeted in the raid.

The Arab League held an emergency session in Cairo to discuss the attack.

"This aggression represents a serious escalation that threatens regional and international security and peace and exposes the deteriorating situation in the region to uncontrollable consequences, which could drag the whole region into violent whirlpool," the body said in a statement.

The Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, said the attack was an "aggression on a close country," while Qatar and Kuwait - which like Egypt are close US allies - also condemned the Israeli attack.

Israel is of course entitled to take steps to protect itself from terrorist attack, but these steps should be within international law

UK Foreign Office

Jordan's Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said the air strike could "drag the whole region into a circle of violence".

France, which holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, said the air strike "constitutes an unacceptable violation of international law and rules of sovereignty".

And Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, on a tour of the Middle East, said: "Violating the sovereignty of a third country complicates further the [peace] process, that's why what happened in Syria cannot be accepted."

A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said: "Israel is of course entitled to take steps to protect itself from terrorist attack, but these steps should be within international law."

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By Justin Webb
BBC Washington correspondent

US President George Bush spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon following Sunday's air strike on Syria.
But the main purpose of the call, according to the White House, was to express condolences for the Haifa suicide bombing.

The Bush administration is said to have had no advance warning of the Israeli attack on the target in Syria and no firm knowledge that it was a terrorist camp.

The White House has called on both Israel and Syria to avoid an escalation of violence.

But a White House spokesman said Mr Bush and Mr Sharon had agreed during their phone conversation on the need to continue fighting terrorism in the region.

The president had not told the prime minister the raid was a mistake.

The Bush administration has itself come close to running out of patience with Syria. It believes the Syrians have aided attacks on US forces in Iraq.

There are some in the administration who would see military action against Syria as a logical next step in the war on terrorism, although not a realistic one for the US at the moment.

As for the fate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the view of the White House has not changed. Any Israeli attempt to send him into exile would be regarded by Washington as counter productive.

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US President George W Bush has insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself, in his first public comments since an Israeli air strike against a target inside Syria.
But Mr Bush also said he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to try to avoid further escalating tensions in the Middle East.

BBC Washington correspondent Rob Watson says Mr Bush's comments were a diplomatic balancing act designed to reassure Arab allies but to avoid any criticism of Israel.

Israel says Sunday's air strike targeted a training camp run by Islamic Jihad, the group it accuses of carrying out a suicide bombing in the coastal town of Haifa that killed 19 people the day before.

Syria insists Islamic Jihad has no camps in the country, and has tabled a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council condemning the Israeli action as "military aggression".

ISRAEL AND SYRIA - OLD FOES
Went to war in 1948, 1967 and 1973
Israeli attacks on Syrian forces in Lebanon go back to 1982, with new strikes in 2001
Israeli warplanes buzzed a presidential palace in Syria in August in what was seen as a warning

Speaking in Washington, Mr Bush said: "Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland.

"However, I said that it's very important that any action Israel take should avoid escalation and creating higher tensions."

The president condemned the "needless murder" of the Haifa bombing, and called on the Palestinian Authority to fight what he called the terrorists trying to prevent the creation of a peaceful Palestinian state.

Veto

Mr Bush did not say whether the United States would veto a UN resolution condemning the attacks in Syria.

But the US has accused Damascus of being on the wrong side in the war on terror, and our correspondent says Washington is likely to have little time for a resolution that does not also condemn the attack in Haifa.

RECENT SUICIDE ATTACKS
9 September: 15 killed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
19 August: 23 killed in Jerusalem
11 June: 17 killed in Jerusalem
18 May: 7 killed in Jerusalem
5 March: 17 killed in Haifa


Eyewitness: Dead children
Bomber's deadly mission
In pictures: Haifa horror
The US ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, has said there is no need for the resolution, and that instead Syria needs to dismantle the terrorism within its borders.

"We have been clear of the need for Syria to cease harbouring terrorist groups," Mr Negroponte said.

The US has often used its veto to block resolutions condemning Israel because it says others involved in the Middle East conflict should also be included.

Syria and Israel are long-standing enemies, and have been technically at war since Israel's founding in 1948, with tensions further exacerbated by Israel's occupation and illegal annexation of the Golan Heights.

Israel said the target of the air raid was the Ein Saheb training camp, 22 kilometres (14 miles) outside Damascus, which it said was used by several militant Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Syrian media have described Ein Saheb as a Palestinian refugee camp.