DAMASCUS, 12 October 2003 — Syria said yesterday it had the right to defend itself if Israel mounted any repeat of an attack that struck deep inside its territory last weekend.
Israel responded by saying a state that harbored “terrorist organizations” had no right to talk of self-defense.
Israel carried out an airstrike last Sunday against what it said was a training camp for “terror groups” after a bombing in Haifa that killed 20 people. The Islamic Jihad movement said it was behind the attack.
Syria said the Israelis had struck a civilian target. “We hope that the Israelis will not repeat their aggression. In case of repetition, Syria has the right to exercise self-defense in all available ways,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani told a press briefing in Damascus. Asked if her remarks suggested military action, Kanafani said: “I am talking about self-defense and self-defense has its meaning so I don’t have to clarify its meaning.”
Gideon Meir, a top Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, initially said Israel viewed “every state which is harboring terrorist organizations... as legitimate targets.”
However, he later toned down his comments to say it was only the “terrorist organizations and their leaders” who were legitimate targets, not the harboring countries.
Kanafani said that all bombings were masterminded and executed by Palestinians in Palestinian territories and that some leaders of Palestinian factions were residents of Syria only because Israel did not allow them to return home.
