News analyst Daniel Shore says that Britain's evidence linking Syria to the attempted bombing places the Reagan Administration in an uncomfortable situation.
The Reagan Administration has been aware for months of the solid evidence that Syrian air force and intelligence organized Nezar Hindawi's attempt to blow up an El Al airliner with two hundred Americans among its three hundred and seventy-five passengers, apparently in revenge for Israel's forcing down of a Syrian plane in a search for terrorists. The case against Syria also includes the bombing of an Arab-German Friendship Club in Berlin and probable complicity in the Beirut bombing that killed two hundred and forty-one American marines. That case is at least as strong as the evidence of Colonel Quddafi's involvement in the Berlin Discotheque bombing last April, which led President Reagan to order a retaliatory bombing raid on Libya. The President, having said he would take similar action against Syria if a similar smoking gun were produced, faces the dilemma now that Britain has produced a smoking gun of how to orchestrate a response short of an attack on Syria that he has no intention of ordering. Syria raises problems that Libya did not. A sign from President Assad's ambiguous contribution to gaining freedom for hostages and his dubious role in the stagnant Middle East peace process: any use of force against Syrian territory would probably trigger a response from the Soviet Union under a treaty commitment. And an attack on a Syrian controlled Bekaa Valley, terrorist staging area in Lebanon, might jeopardize American hostages who are believed to be held in that area. And so, the administration seeks to divert attention from President Reagan's rhetoric of swift retribution, by allowing the issue to be framed by the European community in terms of verbal, diplomatic and, as an ultimate recourse, economic sanctions against Syria. The European controversy arrays Britain which provided bases for the American attack on Libya, against France, which denied overflight rights. And yet the Reagan Administration has not even joined Britain in breaking relations with Syria, let alone pressing Europe for more vigorous action as it did in the case of Libya. The loud-mouthed Colonel Quddafi may talk more provocatively than the wily President Assad, but officials know that Syria has cost a lot more American lives. And yet, Syria is a different ball game offering America fewer safe options. But President Reagan might wish he had not made such unqualified promises of anti-terrorist reprisal. News analyst Daniel Shore.
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