Still Professing His Innocence, Syrian Envoy Leaves Britain

Syrian Ambassador Loutof Allah Haydar left for home Friday, dismissing as untrue British government charges that he was directly involved in a terrorist plot to blow up an Israeli airliner.

“I have never ever been involved in any illegal activities on British soil,” he told reporters at his West London residence before heading for the airport. “That’s the truth. That’s final, regardless of what the British government says. There is not a grain of truth in any of the allegations.”

Haydar’s departure, coupled with the departure from Damascus of British Ambassador Roger Tomkys, came exactly one week after Britain formally severed diplomatic relations with Syria as the result of a terrorist trial that revealed evidence of Syrian government involvement.

Bomb Plot in London

A 32-year-old Jordanian, Nezar Hindawi, was convicted by a London jury and sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment. The prosecution had charged that Hindawi had plotted to blow up an El Al Israel Airlines jetliner last April 17 by placing a bomb in the hand luggage of his unwitting Irish girlfriend.

After the verdict, Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe said there was no doubt of official Syrian involvement in the attempted bombing. He said Hindawi was recruited by Syrian military intelligence, carried an official Syrian passport, met with Haydar at the Syrian Embassy shortly after the explosives were discovered by an El Al security guard and was later sheltered in a Syrian safehouse.

Howe originally gave the Syrians two weeks to close their embassy here but cut the time in half when Syria retaliated by ordering the expulsion of the British ambassador to Damascus within a week.

Condemns Expulsion Move

Despite the evidence of his government’s involvement in the bombing attempt, Haydar condemned his expulsion and the break in relations.

“I can assure you,” he told the press, “that the times are gone when any government in the world, any power, can intimidate Syria or impose any conditions on its behavior or deviate the Syrian people from their chosen course.”

A few hours later, Tomkys, the returning British ambassador, told reporters here he believes that the decision to sever relations had come as a surprise in Syria.

“I believe the Syrian government was taken aback and shaken.”

No Choice for Britain

Tomkys said Britain had no choice but to sever relations. “Syria is actively involved with terrorists,” he declared. He predicted it would be a long time before diplomatic ties are restored between the two nations.

At a news conference at Heathrow Airport here, Tomkys described the embassy’s closing as a “disadvantage, not a disaster,” noting that Britain in recent years had not been able “to exercise very much influence over Syrian policy, or Syria over us.”

Tomkys, his wife and 20 other diplomats and their dependents were in the last British group to leave Damascus on Friday.

British Foreign Office sources said the interests of 250 Britons residing in Syria will be looked after by the Australian Embassy there. Syria’s interests in Britain will be in the hands of the Lebanese Embassy here. There are about 2,000 Syrian nationals in Britain, including 1,200 students.

Optimism on Sanctions

The departure of the two ambassadors took place against a backdrop of mounting optimism in the Foreign Office that most of Britain’s partners in the European Communities will support further diplomatic measures against Syria at a meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for Nov. 10 in London.

Earlier this week, West Germany announced that it was delaying a decision on whether to name a new ambassador to Syria. This action comes as Hindawi’s brother, Ahmed Nawaf Mansour Hasi, awaits trial in West Berlin. He has been charged in connection with the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin discotheque that left two American servicemen and a Turkish woman dead.

Intelligence reports linking Libya to the West Berlin bombing led to the American air raid 10 days later on the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.

The Foreign Office also interpreted as a positive sign statements by French officials that their government would support a European Communities ban on sending arms to Syria. “The French are prepared to sign up with most of what’s on the table,” a Foreign Office official said Friday.

Airline Tied to Terror

On Monday, at a meeting of Common Market ministers in Luxembourg, Britain failed to win agreement on a package of sanctions against Syria that included an arms embargo, a freeze on high-level visits between Syria and European Communities countries and increased security in connection with the state-owned Syrian Arab Airline. Hindawi is said to have used London hotel accommodations reserved for Syrian Arab Airline crews.

At Luxembourg, the Greek representative refused to accept the evidence brought out at the trial or other evidence produced independently. But Friday, the Foreign Office sources indicated that the other Common Market members might decide to bypass this opposition and carry out the sanctions without unanimity.

The format for the Nov. 10 meeting, on political cooperation among European Communities members, is technically outside the framework of the Treaty of Rome, the group’s basic governing document. This would permit the group to take action even if there is dissent, so long as the action does not violate specific treaty rules.