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Syria organizes anti-U.S. offensive

CAIRO -- Syria is organizing an offensive throughout the Middle East in an attempt to pressure Washington to force Israel to concede to demands by Damascus for an unconditional full withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Arab diplomatic sources said so far Syria has recruited the support of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and several of the Gulf states. The sources said Syria will focus on recruiting Arab support against Israel while Egypt will work with the United States and the European Union.

The sources said Syria intends to capitalize on the anger in the Arab world connected to the Israeli attacks in Lebanon in response to the offensive by the Iranian-backed Hizbullah militia. They pointed to the daily demonstrations in Beirut against the United States and Israel and expect that the protests will spread throughout the Arab world over the weekend.

Both Lebanon and Syria have been in contact with Arab allies over the last two days, the sources said. These includes calls to the foreign ministers of Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

Syria's allies in the Arab world have relayed protests to the United States over what they charged was an Israeli Cabinet decision to authorize military attacks on Lebanese civilian centers. In Amman, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib told U.S. ambassador William Burns that his government rejects the use of force against Lebanon and attacks on civilian installations.

"Mr. Khatib urged the U.S. administration to strive to put an end to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and underscored the need to respect the terms of the April agreement," the official Jordanian news agency Petra reported.

In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa summoned U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Daniel Kurtzer, and relayed what Mussa said was "Egypt's concern about Israel's serious violation of the April agreement. Egypt has asked the U.S. administration to live up to its responsibilities as the main sponsor of the Middle East peace process, in order to stop the Israeli aggression against south Lebanon."

A similar message was delivered by Kuwait's foreign ministry to U.S. ambassador James Larocco. "Because of American support, the Israelis, and in particular the extremists amongst them, start to believe that they are above international law and the United Nations charter," the Syrian government daily Tishrin said.

On Thursday, the Syrian parliament condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and accused the Jewish state of following the model of Nazi Germany during World War II. "Israel wants to impose terror on the Lebanon, Syria, the Arabs and the entire world, exactly as the Nazis did during World War II when it destroyed the infrastructure in Europe," a statement by the parliament said.

In Beirut, 2,000 students tried to storm the U.S. Embassy in the most violent anti-American demonstration yet in the Lebanese capital. The students burst through a police cordon and came under a barrage of tear gas and streams of water from high-pressure hoses.

The students, however, were stopped by a barbed wire barrier set up by the army about 300 meters from the U.S. Embassy. Eyewitnesses and diplomatic sources said the protests appeared to have been organized and the police were unusually restrained.

Students said another demonstration would be held on Friday in Beirut. The target this time would be the Atlanta-based CNN television network, which the students accused of favoring Israel in news coverage.

The response by the United States to the demonstrations has been mild. "We support rights of freedom of expression and assembly," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Anne O'Leary said. "We look to and have every confidence in the government of Lebanon's commitment to preserve law and order, and protect the safety of diplomatic missions and personnel."

The demonstrations were sparked after the United States blamed Hizbullah for the Israeli attacks on Lebanese infrastructure earlier this month. Hizbullah attacks resulted in the death of seven soldiers this month, with the militia being accused of firing from civilian areas.

The United States also said Syria has failed to stop Hizbullah. "Hizbollah is an enemy of peace," U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said. "They don't want the peace process to go forward. They are disrupting it."

The accusation has angered Lebanese leaders, who are beholden to Syria. "The United States is a superpower and it is its responsibility to take the side of the victim and not that of the tormentor," Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss said.

By late Thursday, the United States ended any understanding of Israeli retaliation. In its first critricism, the State Department said Israeli air strikes against Lebanese infrastructure are ineffective and hurt the Lebanese people.

"We do not believe that Israeli attacks against civilian infrastructure and populated areas will solve the problem," State Department spokesman James Rubin said. "Such actions only add to the suffering of the people of Lebanon."

Rubin denied that the Ms. Albright expressed any understanding of Israeli retaliatory attacks. "She was studiously neutral,'' he said. "She merely recounted what the Israelis say that they were doing. She didn't say that was a good thing, she didn't say that was a bad thing. She didn't say we supported it, we opposed it. She was noncommittal on that subject."

David Satterfield, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, said Ms. Albright relayed a new message to Lebanese leaders. He said the message "expressed her deep sorrow and regret on behalf of the US government over the attacks which have taken place on civil infrastructures in Lebanon and harmed Lebanese civilians. The secretary expressed her great concern over the escalation which had taken place and her hope that there would be no further violence, no further escalation."

Egypt also sent messages to Israel, warning against any more attacks on Lebanon. Egypt's parliamentary speaker Ahmed Fathi cancelled a meeting with his counterparts in Israel, Jordan and Italy scheduled for March 5 to protest against the Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

At the same time, however, hundreds of Egyptians attended a reception by the Israeli Embassy in Cairo that marked 20 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The reception at the home of Israeli ambassador Zvi Mazel included former Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Khalil, industrialists and writers.