Syria yesterday warned it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel's offensive on Lebanon.
"Any Israeli attack against Syria will provoke an unlimited, direct and firm response using all means necessary," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said, according to the official SANA news agency.
Israel said on Saturday that Syria was not a target in its offensive, after firing rockets close to the Lebanese-Syrian border.
PHOTO: AFP
The mood in Syria's capital had been defiant, even gleeful, on Saturday as Hezbollah continued its rocket attacks on northern Israel.
Pop radio stations played jingoistic military marches, and the state-run newspaper, Tishreen, reported on a meeting of the ruling Syrian Baath Party by saying, "participants expressed Syria's firm stance in support of the Lebanese national resistance."
A Damascus businessman who would give only his first name, Mustafa, said: "I am 100 percent very happy. All of the Syrian people are happy, because we consider Hezbollah as being one of us."
Though Syria has long supported militant anti-Israel organizations, including Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a radical Shiite militia with strong ties to Syria and Iran, such public directness on the subject is new, analysts say. They say the government is voicing such sentiments in an attempt to appeal to the Syrian masses.
"Yesterday [Friday] the Syrian Baath Party expressed its full support and sympathy for Hezbollah," said Marwan Kabalan, a political science professor at Damascus University.
"It is overt now, because this is no longer something the government wants to hide. People here are very emotional about the whole situation, and many of them wish that Syria would get up and join Hamas and Hezbollah in their battle against Israel," he said.
A half-dozen Syrians interviewed at random in Damascus cafes all said that they admired Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, for using military action to back his anti-Israeli rhetoric.
"Nasrallah has caused a great deal of embarrassment among the Arab leaders," Kabalan continued. "He is seen as the only Arab leader who can stand by his words and resist Israel."
Imad Fauzi Shueibi, a political analyst who often works as a consultant to the Syrian government, laughed as he said that he believed that Israel was being drawn into a trap if it thought it could successfully fight on two, or even three, fronts.
Israel and the US have said that they attribute a supporting role in Hezbollah's attacks on Israel to Syria, and many Syrians are now talking about the possibility of a battle with Israel in the Golan region.
"I am laughing because I am so happy to see that in Israel there are these very stupid leaders," Fauzi Shueibi said. "Israel has nothing to gain by changing the balance of power in the region. To fight on two fronts at the same time is stupid; if they try to open three fronts, that will be madness."
"No one can believe that this will stop without a huge victory for Hezbollah and for Syria," Fauzi Shueibi added. "I haven't felt so optimistic since 1973. I think we are closing the noose on Israel. This may be the last battle, and we may be able to redraw the map of the Middle East, but not on the schedule of America's plan for the greater Middle East."
As Israel continued its airstrikes on Lebanon, many Lebanese began flooding into Syria over the past several days, leading some Syrians to worry about a possible refugee crisis.
Syria already serves as a temporary home for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees, and according to Syrian government figures, more than 17,000 Lebanese refugees crossed into Syria on Friday alone.
At Jdayat-Yabbus, a Syria border town, Lebanese refugees said Friday that the price of a taxi from Beirut to Damascus, normally about US$50, had been driven up to US$500 or more for what is usually a two-hour ride but could now stretch to five hours or more.
Those who could not afford taxis crammed into flatbed trucks; others took the bus to Chtaura, a Lebanese border town, and then crossed on foot, walking several miles in the brutal sun and carrying their luggage on their heads.
Many were from the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have come under heavy attack by Israeli warplanes because of Hezbollah's strong presence there.
Hassan, an automobile mechanic from southern Beirut who declined to give his last name, was traveling Friday in a flatbed truck brimming with 15 young children, all looking tired and miserable.
He said he was bringing the children -- two his own and the rest nieces and nephews -- to stay with distant relatives in Syria.
"We haven't slept in three days," he said. "The Israelis are bombing shopping malls and television stations. The children are very frightened, and so we are bringing them to Syria for their safety."
Syrian analysts noted with some pride that Syria would have a central role in any peace agreement, and that the USs might now be forced to make a deal with Syria because of Hezbollah's actions.
"Syria has demonstrated once again that it can't be marginalized," Kabalan said. "It has succeeded in turning the tables on the Americans. Syria has demonstrated successfully that it is still here and still in control."
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