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Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa blamed Israel for the escalating violence in Lebanon and Palestinian territories. (AP)
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| By Associated Press July 12, 2006 |
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Syria's vice president blamed Israel for the escalating violence in Lebanon and Palestinian territories Wednesday, and Arab countries worried over possible Israeli retaliation against Syria after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by its ally, Hezbollah.
Syria also is host to the top leadership of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, whose fighters seized an Israeli soldier two weeks ago -- putting Damascus at the center of blame by Israel and the United States in the crisis.
Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa denied his country had a role in either abduction.
"It's up to the resistance -- both the Lebanese and the Palestinian -- to decide what they are doing and why are they fighting," he told reporters in Damascus.
But he put ultimate blame on Israel for the seizures of the soldiers, saying, "For sure, the occupation (of the Palestinian territories) is the cause provoking both Lebanese and Palestinian people, and that's why there is Lebanese and Palestinian resistance."
Al-Sharaa made the comments at a press conference with Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, whose country is also a top backer of Hamas and Hezbollah.
"When the Zionist entity attacks and slaughters the Palestinian people ... resistance is necessary," Larijani said.
Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, triggering an Israeli assault with warplanes, tanks and gunboats against southern Lebanon as Israeli troops crossed the frontier to hunt for the captives.
Israel has already been waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at winning the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, seized by Hamas-linked fighters in a cross-border raid on June 25.
Soon after Shalit's abduction, Israeli warplanes buzzed low over a summer home of Syrian President Bashar Assad in an attempt to pressure Damascus to secure his release.
The Arab League planned an urgent meeting on the crisis Thursday amid "fears of widening of tension and possible Israeli strike against Syria," a senior league official in Cairo said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
In Cairo, a top U.S. diplomat accused Syria of interfering to prevent a solution to Shalit's abduction.
"We are dismayed that so far there are some who are intending to interfere, to prevent a solution," David C. Welch, the U.S. assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said.
He called the Hezbollah capture of the two Israeli soldiers a "very dangerous escalation" that complicated efforts for Shalit's release.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also indirectly criticized Syria, suggesting it disrupted his country's attempts to mediate a deal for Shalit's release.
Hamas was subjected to "counter-pressures by other parties, which I don't want to name but which cut the road in front of the Egyptian mediation and led to the failure of the deal after it was about to be concluded," Mubarak said in an interview with Egypt's Al-Massai newspaper published Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Mubarak called Jordanian King Abdullah II to discuss latest developments on Israel's border with Lebanon and in Gaza, Egypt's official news agency reported Wednesday.
Hani Khallaf, Egypt's representative at Arab League, said "the developments at the Lebanese border is a serious and important development that has to be urgently studied and closely followed at the Arab level." He said Arab foreign ministers could meet in the coming days after the league session.
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