US Attacked Syria to Upset EU-Damascus Relations

The United States air attack on a village in Syria topped the headlines in national media this week, with some writers asserting that Washington’s actual real was to halt the country’s budding relationship with Europe.



Syria said the air strike near the Iraqi-Syrian border on October 26 killed eight people. Washington has not confirmed the attack, but a US official said there was a cross-border operation targeting a leading al-Qaeda figure.



In an October 28 editorial. Wadah Abd Rabo, editor-in-chief of the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan, argued that by striking inside Syria, the US was trying to send a message to the European Union as it attempts to re-build ties with Damascus, It also wanted to show the world that the outgoing Bush administration was not weak and that the US was still in control of Iraq, including its relations with neighbouring countries.



Rabo encouraged the government to take steps to counter the Bush administration. He asserted that the victims’ families should file lawsuits in US courts and at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.



Asad Abbod, editor-in-chief of the official Al-Thawra newspaper, asserted in an editorial the same day that the US attack was prompted by Damascus’s recent diplomatic successes, and denied allegations that militants were hiding out in the area that was attacked.



Ibrahim Darraji, a law professor at Damascus University, also interpreted the attack as an attempt to threaten European-Syrian ties. In an article also published in Al-Watan on October 28, he said the US wanted to stop Europe opening up to Syria, and also to push the Iraqi government to sign a security pact with Washington.



Darraji dismissed the US allegation that the attack targeted foreign fighters as “silly” and “a lie”, and claimed that all of those killed were Syrians, many from the same family, who did not resist the attack.



He questioned Baghdad’s role in the attack and predicted that the raid would damage Iraqi-Syrian relations.



The Syrian press highlighted European and Arab condemnations of the raid, but also suggested that Arab nations, Iraq in particular, were not doing enough to defend Damascus.



In an article published in Al-Thawra on October 29, journalist Khalid al-Shahab described other Arab nations as “ostriches burying their heads in the sand” and ignoring “aggression against Syria”.