Syria Threatens ‘Consequences' for Israel

UNITED NATIONS — Syria yesterday threatened "serious consequences" for the Jewish state in a public letter to the United Nations, as officials in Jerusalem remained silent about reports of last week's Israeli military operation across the Syrian border. According to an American official, the raid was designed to send a message to Iran and its proxy terrorist organization in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

The French news agency Agence France-Presse reported yesterday that an unnamed Washington official confirmed that Israel conducted a "quick strike" in Syria and "scooted out of there" without engaging the Syrians. "The Israelis are trying to tell the Syrians: ‘Don't support a resurgence of Hezbollah in Lebanon,'" the official was quoted as saying.

Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, denied at least one component of an earlier report on CNN, telling the Associated Press that no Israeli ground troops were operating in his country last Thursday.

Nevertheless, in an official letter of complaint to Secretary-General Ban, Mr. Jaafari demanded that the "international community" take action against what he called Israel's "defiance of international law." But Mr. Jaafari declined to ask the Security Council to specifically address Syria's allegations about last week's raid.

Syrian weapons transfers to Hezbollah have created "a pattern over the past three or four years, which has occurred without any retaliation or action taken against it," CNN noted. The Israeli attack was designed to send a message to Iran and Hezbollah that impunity would not continue and that "Israeli or American" planes can reach Iranian targets, CNN said. Speaking to Arabic-language reporters at the United Nations yesterday, Mr. Jaafari confirmed an earlier report in the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, according to which the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, delivered a message to the Syrian government from Jerusalem a few hours before the attack. The message reportedly indicated that Israel had no plans to attack Syria. In Damascus, that report was used to show that "Tel Aviv" — as Baathists call the Jewish state — is duplicitous and cannot be trusted. But if true, the communication might have been sent through Mr. Solana to convey to Syrian military planners that the ensuing Israeli operation was not part of larger hostilities against their country, diplomats said.

This interpretation may explain why, even as according to CNN "the Israeli government is very happy with the success of the operation," its top ministers remained uncharacteristically silent. The network reported that its sources said the air operation last week also might have involved Israeli ground forces, who directed the airstrike that "left a big hole in the desert" in Syria.

If Iran's weapons transfers to Hezbollah were indeed the target, a Western council diplomat told The New York Sun yesterday, it might explain Syria's hesitance to convene the Security Council. The diplomat, who was unauthorized to speak on the record, added that if the United Nations addressed the alleged Israeli violation of Syrian airspace, the organization also might be asked to deal with Syria's role in arming Lebanese militias, in violation of a council resolution.

As of yesterday, a diplomat from the French U.N. mission, which serves as the rotating council president in September, said none of the 15 council members asked for a session on the Israeli-Syrian issue.

U.N. officials, meanwhile, contacted "a wide range of interlocutors in the region, trying to get clarifications" from Israel, a U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said. But for a sixth day in a row, officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the prime minister's office told the Sun that they would not address any aspect of the alleged incident. An Israeli U.N. ambassador, Daniel Carmon, declined comment.

"Syria emphasizes that if the international community persists in disregarding these Israeli actions in breach of international law, that is likely to subject the region and international peace and security to serious consequences that may be difficult to control," Mr. Jaafari wrote in his letter to Mr. Ban, which was dated September 9.

His letter said that after midnight on September 6, the Israeli air force "committed a breach" of Syria's airspace in the northern part of the country, entering through the Mediterranean, "flying toward the northeast and breaking the sound barrier." As they were leaving, the Israeli aircrafts "dropped some munitions but without managing to cause any human casualties or material damage," he wrote.