CAIRO, Oct 5: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned on Sunday an Israeli raid purportedly aimed at a Palestinian militant training camp in Syria cannot be accepted,” Mr Schroeder said at a press conference in Cairo with Mr Mubarak.
Mr Schroeder, among the first European leaders to react to the air strike, also condemned the Palestinian suicide attack in Haifa, which prompted Israel to launch the raid, its first into the heart of Syria for at least two decades.
Mr Schroeder, speaking in German through an interpreter, said “our common position is that we are opposed to terrorism,” adding that he “shared the sadness of the families of the victims of this criminal (suicide) attack.”
Mr Mubarak said that “we condemn the violence and we condemn the aggression that happened today against a brother country (Syria), under the pretext of the presence of (Palestinian) organizations.”
And, in an allusion to the Haifa attack, the Egyptian leader denounced the “intensification of violence and counter-violence and their negative repercussions on civilians.
FRANCE CONDEMNS: France condemned Israel’s air strikes inside Syria, saying they were “an unacceptable violation of international law” and risked worsening the already parlous situation in the Middle East.
“In a Middle East rocked by crises, it is everybody’s responsibility, especially that of states in the region, to not add to the instability and tensions. The struggle against terrorism, to which France is resolutely committed, must be carried out in line with international law,” the foreign ministry in Paris said in a statement.
US REACTION: The United States called on Israel and Syria on Sunday not to take any actions which would heighten tensions, a US administration official said in Washington.
“At this time we urge both Israel and Syria to avoid actions that heighten tensions or could lead to hostilities,” the official said.
VAJPAYEE: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said:
“We strongly condemn it (the Israeli action). The cycle of violence and counter-violence should stop,” Vajpayee told reporters at New Delhi airport before departing for a seven-day trip to Indonesia and Thailand, the PTI reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon paid a landmark visit to India last month during which the two countries vowed to fight terror together.
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah condemned the Israeli raid on a suspected militant base in Syria calling it a “flagrant aggression,” the KUNA official news agency reported.
“The raid constitutes a flagrant Israeli aggression on the territories of sisterly Syria and a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international community decisions,” Sheikh Sabah said in a statement.—AFP