Israel/Syria: President Bush expressed clear support yesterday for Israel's air strike on Sunday on an alleged Islamic Jihad training base northwest of Damascus, and hinted that the US would therefore veto a Syrian-initiated UN resolution condemning the raid.
Sending condolences to Israel over what he called "the needless murder of innocent people" - the killings of 19 Israelis in an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant on Saturday - Mr Bush said that he had told Israel's Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon by telephone that, "Israel's got a right to defend herself, that Israel must not feel constrained in terms of defending the homeland."
Mr Bush, who was apparently not contacted by Israel in advance of the raid, added, however, that he told Mr Sharon, "it's very important that any action Israel takes should avoid escalation and creating higher tensions."
Syria's acting ambassador to the US, Mr Imad Moustapha, rejected as "cheap propaganda" Israel's claim that the base, at Ein Saheb, was used by terror groups, and asserted that film of weapon stores at the base, originally screened on Iranian television and released by the Israeli army, was "not taken in Syria".
Syrian diplomats at the UN called the Israeli raid, in which one man was said to have been injured, an unprovoked and "aggressive operation". Many international leaders also issued statements condemning the raid, and backing the resolution, which warned of "uncalculated consequences that would endanger the peace in the region".
France called it "an unacceptable violation of international law". UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern at the "escalation of an already tense and difficult situation". Only the US delegation made plain its opposition to the text of the resolution, expressing outrage at the absence of any condemnatory reference to the Haifa bombing.
The US ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, said Syria was "on the wrong of the side of the war on terrorism". Israeli officials last night said that the Ein Saheb base, which they acknowledged was not run by Islamic Jihad but by Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was used by Islamic Jihad and other extremist groups, and indicated that there could be well be further such raids into Syria, including attacks on what they said were the Damascus headquarters of groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Mr Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, said Syria provided "training facilities, funding and logistical support" for terror groups, and compared Syria's appeal to the UN for international condemnation of the air strike to Osama bin Laden appealing to the UN after the September 11th, 2001, attacks.
Israeli sources were also quoted on state television last night as saying that the removal of the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, blamed by Israel for encouraging terrorist attacks, "could happen at any moment". The Israeli government, which decided in principle last month to "remove" the PA chief, was said to have been encouraged by the fact that, since Saturday's bombing and the heightened expectation that Mr Arafat's expulsion was imminent, "not a single international request" had been received by Jerusalem to stay its hand.
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, meanwhile, an exchange of fire raised fears of yet another area of tension. Two vehicles reportedly approached the border fence north of the Israeli town of Metulla and opened fire on Israeli troops, who returned fire. Three Israeli bullets hit a UNIFIL water truck, a UNIFIL official said. There were no reports of injuries.