The World - News from Nov. 17, 1986

President Hafez Assad denied charges of Syrian involvement in terrorism and called for the formation of a committee from the Western powers, Arab states and the Soviet Union to combat it. “We are against terrorism, we don’t practice it and do not allow anyone to hatch terrorist plots from our territory,” Assad told about 7,000 people at a Damascus rally marking the 16th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power. Britain cut diplomatic ties with Syria last month after a Jordanian was convicted of working with Syrian diplomats in an attempt to plant a bomb on an Israeli airliner in London.