Assad urges Palestinians to resume attacks on Israel

WASHINGTON -- Syria has remained on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist sponsors as President Hafez Assad is accused of urging Palestinian opposition groups to resume attacks on Israel.

The request by Assad was made last week during a meeting between the Syrian president and four Palestinian groups supported by Iran.

U.S. officials said the inclusion of Syria on the State Department list marks the fulfillment of a pledge made by the Clinton administration to Israel. The pledge was to keep Syria on the list until after a peace treaty and the expulsion of terrorist groups from Damascus.

The Clinton administration, officials said, has been disappointed with the apparent decision by President Hafez Assad to keep 10 Palestinian opposition groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in Damascus. They said this was despite suggestions that the groups would be forced out of Syria.

The list of terrorist sponsors was the same as last year's State Department. They are Cuba, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and North Korea.

Still, the department has determined that Syria no longer sponsors terrorism although it continues to harbor terrorist groups. Officials said Libya and Sudan also appear to have reduced their support for terrorism.

But Israeli sources reported on Monday that Assad had asked Palestinian opposition groups to renew attacks on Israel as it prepares to withdraw from Lebanon. The groups included Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah-Intifada and the Popular Front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. All of them are supported and financed by Iran.

The report, relayed by the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo to the Foreign Ministry, based its information on a meeting between the Japanese and a Syrian intelligence officer. The report said the groups were reserved in response in their response to Assad.

The groups were said to have been surprised by the request from Assad only months after Syrian leaders urged the Palestinians to lower their profile in Damascus. Last October, some Palestinian opposition officials raised the prospect that they would be asked to leave Damascus.

Another recent meeting was held by Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas and the deputy chief of the ruling Baath Party, Abdullah Ahmed, with Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine chief George Habash. During the meeting, the two Syrian officials urged Habash to organize attacks against Israel.

But the Israeli report said Egyptian diplomats in Damascus also met with Palestinian groups and urged them not to raise their profile.

On Sunday, Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres cited intelligence reports that Syria and Hizbullah are trying to recruit Palestinian groups for attacks against Israel. Peres told an Israeli ministerial security committee that the Jewish state should delay any negotiations on the future of Palestinian refugees until Israel completes its withdrawal from Lebanon.

The 107-page report, first released in the New York Times on Sunday, stressed the rising terrorist threat from south Asia. The report named Afghanistan as a "major terrorist threat" and asserted that Pakistan is harboring terrorists. Neither country, however, appears on the State Department list.

Officials said Afghanistan was not added to the list because the United States did not recognize the ruling Taliban militia. Pakistan, the officials said, was spared because it remains a U.S. ally.