Syria Retaliates, Orders Britain’s Embassy Closed

Describing Britain’s actions against it as “unjustified,” Syria on Friday ordered the British Embassy and cultural center in Damascus to shut down and announced the closure of its airspace and seaports to British aircraft and ships.

An official spokesman was quoted by state-run Damascus radio as saying that the staffs of the embassy and the British Council, the cultural arm of the embassy, were ordered to leave Syria within a week--one week less than the time Britain gave to Syria to close its embassy in London. The government also ordered Syria’s national airline to stop flying to Britain.

An official statement reiterated Syria’s denials of any Damascus role in an unsuccessful plot to plant a bomb aboard an Israeli airliner in London--the incident that led to Britain’s decision to sever ties with the Syrian government.

Surprised at Severity

According to diplomats in the Syrian capital, the severity of Britain’s action appeared to take authorities there by surprise. It also effectively deflated a Syrian campaign to distance that country from charges of involvement in international terrorism.

Western diplomats based in Damascus said that the outright rupture of ties was more drastic than had been expected. Local officials, the diplomats said, had expressed hopes that Britain would limit its reaction to the expulsion of Syria’s ambassador in London.

In a Friday broadcast, Syrian television accused the British government of waging an “anti-Arab campaign” and accused London of collaborating with Israel. It made no mention of the London trial in which the Jordanian convicted in the bomb plot was linked to Syria.

British Ambassador Roger Tomkys called at the Syrian Foreign Ministry and said he had received “every assurance that the Syrians understood their obligations under international law and will observe them.” He was referring to the Vienna conventions on respect for diplomatic immunity and the personal safety of diplomats.

Diplomats said the two sides have already started negotiations about opening interest sections in other embassies in their respective capitals to represent their governments.

Tomkys commented only that “I’m naturally disappointed in my personal capacity since I have received a great deal of kindness during my time in Syria and I have many friends here.”

Concerned About Retaliation

Britain already has pulled three diplomats out of its embassy in neighboring Lebanon out of concern for possible retaliation there for any British move against Syria.

The conviction of Nezar Hindawi, a Jordanian, in London on charges of trying to blow up the El Al airliner will seriously undermine Syria’s recent campaign to convince Western powers that it has no official hand in international terrorism, according to diplomats.

President Hafez Assad proclaimed last week that “Syria has no connection with terror,” and in an interview with Time magazine, he challenged Western intelligence agencies to prove differently. Assad maintained that the Hindawi affair was contrived by Israeli intelligence.

Meanwhile, West Germany is holding Hindawi’s brother, Ahmad Nawaf Mansour Hasi, on charges of bombing a German-Arab friendship society in West Berlin on March 29. Hasi has reportedly told authorities there that he obtained the explosives he used from the Syrian Embassy in East Berlin.

U.S. Repercussions

The Hasi affair could have repercussions in the United States because Hasi has been accused of involvement in the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin discotheque popular with American servicemen. That bombing was cited as justification for the U.S. air raid against Libya on April 15.

Additionally, France has suggested a Syrian connection with a wave of bombings that hit Paris in September. One French Cabinet minister said the terrorists responsible were spirited out of the country by a professional secret service that he strongly hinted belonged to Syria.

Syria also has been accused of having a role in the attacks on the El Al check-in counters at Rome and Vienna airports last Dec. 27. The attacks, which claimed 20 lives, including those of five Americans, were carried out by Palestinian terrorists loyal to the shadowy Abu Nidal, who has an office in Damascus, but Western officials have not spoken of a direct Syrian role.

The Hindawi affair in London has long puzzled Western analysts, who, despite a tendency to disbelieve the Assad regime, have always credited Damascus with more sophistication in its intelligence activities.

Angry at Israel

The consensus among diplomats is that if Assad ordered the bombing, it was in retaliation for Israel’s interception of a Libyan jetliner over the Mediterranean on Feb. 4. The plane carried a senior official of Assad’s Arab Socialist Baath party, and reports from Israel suggested that he was humiliated and mistreated during his detention.

One theory holds that Assad expressed outrage over the aircraft’s diversion and that a lower ranking official took his expression as authority to proceed against an Israeli target.