Syria Given ‘Good Grades’ in West as Terrorism Drops

In October, 1986, a spectacular court case in London ended with a rare display of Western resolve. A concerted international campaign was mounted against Syria following allegations that the Damascus government was deeply involved in international terrorism.

Britain broke relations with Syria. The United States withdrew its ambassador and imposed economic sanctions. Member nations of the European Economic Community suspended financial aid and banned high-level visits.

The Syrians protested their innocence. But in the 16 months since the embarrassing campaign began, Western diplomats say, not a single act of international terrorism has been traced to Syria or the groups that it controls.

“The Syrians get pretty good grades on terrorism lately,” a Western ambassador here said. “Their record is as good as (that of) many other radical states, such as Algeria.”

The government of President Hafez Assad has taken two steps that Syrian officials point to privately as evidence of Syria’s good intentions on the terrorism issue.

Last spring, Syrian police raided the Damascus offices of the notorious guerrilla leader known as Abu Nidal, whose men carried out attacks on Rome and Vienna airports in December, 1985, that left 20 dead. Abu Nidal’s followers were placed on a plane for Libya, and the offices were closed.

Several months later, Syrianofficials informed diplomats in Damascus that Brig. Gen. Mohammed Khouli, the head of Syrian air force intelligence and the reputed mastermind of many of Syria’s overseas terrorist acts, had been promoted to the largely ceremonial job of deputy air force commander. The promotion came after Khouli reportedly turned down an offer to become Syrian ambassador to Moscow, which was described by insiders as too blatant an effort to get him out of town.

“There’s been an improvement,” one Western diplomat said. “It’s a reaction to the failure of what they had been doing earlier. It’s nothing more than self-interest.”

Syrian officials continue to draw a distinction between international terrorism and attacks against Israel, such as the Palestinian hang-glider attack on an Israeli army base in late November, which left six Israeli soldiers dead.

Such attacks are acts of “national liberation,” in the Syrian view, and while the Syrians do not allow them to be launched from Syria, they generally applaud them. The Assad government even asked the United Nations to convene a conference to define terrorism, in a clear effort to involve Israeli policy in the debate.

Syria’s prestige began to suffer after disclosures in April, 1986, that a Palestinian named Nezar Hindawi had been arrested in London after trying to smuggle a bomb aboard an Israeli airliner bound for Tel Aviv. Hindawi had persuaded his Irish girlfriend to take his suitcase, containing the bomb, to Israel, where he would meet her later.

After the bomb was discovered at London’s Heathrow Airport, it was revealed that Hindawi had traveled on an official Syrian passport under a false name. Hindawi fled to the Syrian Embassy in London, where officials tried to disguise and hide him.

At the same time, Hindawi’s brother, Ahmed Nawaf Mansour Hasi, was under arrest in West Berlin for carrying out the bombing of the German-Arab Friendship Society, again under orders from the Syrians.

The Syrian protocol official at the Foreign Ministry who supported Hindawi’s British visa requests was later fired.

Guerrilla Base Retained

But the other changes, notably the reported moves against Abu Nidal and Gen. Khouli, remain controversial. While forced to leave Damascus, diplomats note, Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabri Banna, has been permitted to retain his guerrilla training camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which is under Syrian army control.

Perhaps as important, at the time that the Abu Nidal group was expelled from Damascus, Abu Nidal followers had entered into an alliance in Palestinian camps in Lebanon with followers of Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to fight against the Shia Muslim militia Amal, Syria’s closet ally in Lebanon. Thus, in the view of many diplomats here, Syria had its own reasons beside terrorism to keep Abu Nidal at a convenient arm’s length.

There is also considerable disagreement about whether Khouli’s career received much of a setback with his promotion within the air force. Syrian officials describe his new job as being without the power and influence of his intelligence post, but he undoubtedly remains part of the inner circle around Assad, many of whom are members of the president’s own tiny Alawite tribe.

“Khouli’s move was a gesture to the outside world, but I doubt he has suffered much in the change,” said one diplomat.

Network Remains

Diplomats also noted that the highly developed Syrian intelligence network remains largely in place, with an intelligence official stationed in every Syrian Embassy in Europe, suggesting that the structure for further acts of terrorism is still available if its use is wanted.

However, as the result of recent Syrian policy changes, the United States has sent Ambassador William L. Eagleton Jr. back to Damascus and lifted a ban on operations of American oil companies, but only after the major company involved, Shell Oil, had pulled out its large American staff and replaced them with Dutch employees.

A number of American sanctions remain, including denial of favorable agricultural credits, which the Syrians desperately need because of a faltering economy, and more symbolic punishments, such as a ban on Syrian airline tickets, which briefly but humiliatingly stranded the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk Shareh, at the United Nations last fall.

While Britain has frozen its relations with Damascus, its European allies, notably France and West Germany, have resumed high-level visits and even talk of new aid for the financially strapped Assad regime.

“I believe the Syrians will from now on be extremely careful about terrorism, especially in Europe,” said one West European diplomat. “They know we have an eye on them.”