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Arab States Say Israeli Attack on Syria "Dangerous"
DAMASCUS, July 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel's Sunday attack on a Syrian radar station has sparked strong Arab verbal condemnation, with Syria announcing that it is leaving ripostes to Hezbollah without engaging in a direct confrontation.
Israeli warplanes destroyed a Syrian radar station in eastern Lebanon on Sunday for the second time since mid-April, wounding at least two Syrian soldiers and a Lebanese soldier. Israel claims that the assault was in response to an attack by Hezbollah on Israeli troops in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms area in southern Lebanon.
The air raid sparked another bombardment by Hezbollah, which damaged an Israeli radar facility, but Syria confined itself to verbal denunciations and consultations with Lebanon, news agencies reported.
Hezbollah said - in a statement - that it was replying to "the cowardly Israeli aggression, which targeted the Syrian military position in the Bekaa valley."
The Bekaa Valley contains Syrian radar, anti-aircraft and tank positions.
Reporting the Israeli attack, Syrian news agency, SANA, stressed it was Hezbollah that responded, while the official Syrian press was muted in its comment Monday.
"Israel wants to push the region into war, thinking that a war will resolve its internal crisis" with the Palestinians, al-Baath, Syria's ruling Baath party newspaper said.
Khalaf al-Jarad, Director-General of the Syrian government daily, Tishrin, wrote in a front-page comment Monday that Syria's commitment to a just and comprehensive peace did not annul its right to retaliate against any attack.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, "the killer of women and children, is fully responsible for dragging the region into a severe crisis and to the brink of an explosion, of which nobody is ignorant of the outcome and repercussions regionally and internationally,'' the commentary said.
"Sharon should realize that the commitment of Syria, Lebanon and Arabs to peace does not cancel their right of resistance and retaliation against any aggression by all possible and legitimate means," it added.
The Israeli Cabinet issued a statement in Jerusalem claiming the radar station was attacked Sunday because Syria was responsible for the Hezbollah raid Friday that wounded two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms, western news agencies said.
Part of the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967, Shebaa Farms has since been claimed by Lebanon with Syrian consent.
Hezbollah vowed to continue resistance until the occupied Shebaa Farms are "restored."
Hezbollah was the main force in driving Israel out of south Lebanon in May 2000, after 22 years of occupation.
Syria, meanwhile, says it supports Hezbollah in its "legitimate fight," but denies Israeli allegations that the resistance activists are under its direct operational control.
"An Israeli radar station was hit for a Syrian one, but it was Hezbollah which carried out the attack against Israel," Ibrahim Hamidi, Damascus correspondent for the London-based Arabic daily, al-Hayat, said.
"Syria does not want to give Sharon the gift of escalating the conflict, and the formula of leaving ripostes to Hezbollah has the aim of making Israel pay for its actions without engaging in a direct confrontation," he said.
Monday's official press also attacked the United States, accusing Washington of not putting pressure on Israel to withdraw from Arab land it has occupied since 1967, Hamidi noted.
Meanwhile, the Saudi government condemned Israel's air strike on a Syrian post in Lebanon as a "dangerous escalation that harms the security and stability of the region," the government said in a weekly session chaired by King Fahd, the official news agency, SPA, reported.
In a joint statement, Jordan and Yemen also accused Israel of "a serious escalation of the situation in the region and a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and international law."
After the meeting of their joint Jordan-Yemen commission, which started its sessions Saturday, the two nations called "for an inter-Arab coordination to meet the challenges confronting the Arab nation."
Arab League Secretary-General, Amr Moussa, said the air strike added "a dark image to current developments," while the United States urged restraint on all sides.
Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Maher, denounced the Israeli attack, calling it an unjustified escalation at a time when efforts were under way to end violence and resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, in a telephone conversation Sunday night with his Syrian counterpart, Farouq al-Sharaa, condemned the "Zionist" air attack, and underlined the need for consolidation of unity among Arab and Islamic countries against the aggressive measures and expansionist policies of the "Zionist" regime.
Sunday's raid was the second attack on a Syrian radar station in Lebanon in less than three months.
On April 16, Israeli warplanes destroyed another Syrian radar station in Lebanon, killing three Syrian soldiers.
It was the first direct clash between the two sides since 1982.
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