British Oust 3 Syrian Diplomats : Envoys Linked to Heathrow Attempt to Blow Up El Al Jet

The British government Saturday ordered three Syrian diplomats out of the country after police investigators reportedly linked them with an attempt last month to blow up an El Al Israel Airlines jumbo jet.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the diplomats were given seven days to leave Britain after diplomatic pressure on the Syrian government failed to win a waiver of their diplomatic immunity so they could be properly questioned by authorities.

After consulting authorities in the capital of Damascus, Syria’s ambassador here, Loutof Haydar, reportedly offered to let police question the three in connection with the bombing attempt, but only at the Syrian Embassy and without waiving their immunity.

Inadmissible in Court

Because evidence gathered under such circumstances could not be used in British courts, police rejected the offer and the expulsion order followed, a Foreign Office statement said.

Although there have been a series of reports of a Syrian connection to recent terrorist activities, Saturday’s expulsions constitute the first concrete public action taken by the West against the Damascus government since U.S. warplanes raided terrorist targets in Libya on April 15.

Elaborating on the Foreign Office statement, a spokesman said that the speed of the expulsion of the Syrians was an indication of the post-Tokyo summit mood among Western countries to take strong, quick action against suspected terrorists.

“Police clearly have evidence of terrorism against them,” the spokesman said. “The speed with which the government acted is unusual.”

Proponent of Action

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher played an important role in shaping the anti-terrorism declaration at the Tokyo summit meeting and is known as one of the West’s leading proponents for decisive action against terrorists.

Haydar was first summoned to the Foreign Office on May 1 when he was reportedly informed of allegations against the three members of his embassy staff and was asked to waive their diplomatic immunity to permit police questioning.

After consulting with his superiors, Haydar returned to the Foreign Office four days later with the offer to allow police questioning without a waiver of immunity.

There have been allegations, reportedly stemming from Israeli intelligence sources, that the Syrian Embassy here was linked to the bomb intended to be smuggled aboard an El Al Boeing 747 at London’s Heathrow Airport. The allegations were denied last Thursday in a formal statement from the Syrian Embassy, calling the charges part of a smear campaign to justify Israeli and American military raids.

Described as Attaches

British authorities identified the three Syrians as Zaki Oud, Ahmed Latif and Mounir Mouna. All are listed simply as “attaches” in the British government’s official directory of accredited diplomats. The title is a junior one carried by the lower-ranking half of the 24 Syrians on the diplomatic list.

All three appear to have arrived in London within the past 12 months, since they are not listed in a June, 1985, diplomatic directory.

The police request to question the Syrian diplomats about the El Al bomb attempt came about 2 1/2 weeks after the arrest of Nezar Hindawi, 31, a Palestinian who carried a Jordanian passport, in connection with the same incident.

Hindawi has been formally charged with conspiracy to murder, and police believe that he played the key role in the plot to blow up the 747 as it flew from London to Tel Aviv with 388 people on aboard last April 17.

Girlfriend With Bomb

Hindawi was arrested at a West London hotel the day after his pregnant Irish girlfriend was stopped as she tried to board the aircraft with a 10-pound bomb hidden in her carry-on luggage. She was later released, and police believe that Hindawi planted the bomb, without her knowledge, under a false bottom in a piece of luggage he gave her to carry.

The following day, West Berlin police arrested Hindawi’s 35-year-old brother as a possible accomplice in the April 5 bombing of a discotheque crowded with American GIs. One American soldier and a Turkish woman were killed in the explosion and 200 injured.

Intercepted radio traffic between Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and the Libyan Embassy in Communist East Berlin convinced U.S. authorities of Libya’s direct involvement in the bombing and led to the American reprisal with an air attack April 15 on Tripoli and Benghazi.

Only after the U.S. attack did reports surface that Syria, too, may have been involved. President Reagan has subsequently named Syria as a country with strong terrorist links.

Syrian Denies Involvement

In an interview with the British domestic news agency Press Assn., Haydar asserted that Syria was neither involved in, nor had any knowledge of, terrorist activity in Britain.

“It was an expression of our good intentions . . . and of confidence in the innocence of the Syrian Embassy and its staff that we were ready to concede that we had no objections to the British security authorities interviewing any official at our premises,” the ambassador told the news agency.

“But there has been no accusation or charge of any misdoing by anyone in the embassy, and under these circumstances, we could not accept the request to waive diplomatic immunity,” Haydar said.