Syria: We will defend ourselves

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria has the right to defend itself "in all available ways" if Israel attacks it again, a Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Saturday, adding that relations with the United States are at their lowest point in years.

The Foreign Ministry comment came at the first news conference by a senior Syrian official since Israeli warplanes bombed a camp outside Damascus nearly a week ago. Israel says it was a training camp for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which had claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Israel the day before that killed 20 Israelis.

"We hope that the Israelis will not repeat their aggression. In case of repetition, Syria has the right to exercise its right of self-defense in all available ways," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bushra Kanafani said.

Kanafani reiterated Syria's official position that the camp was abandoned by Palestinians years ago.

Syria's military of 320,000 troops is seen by experts as no match for Israel's modern, well-trained army, and analysts have said President Bashar Assad has no effective military option in response to Israel.

Syria presented a motion to the U.N. Security Council calling on the world body to condemn Israel, but the council postponed a vote. The United States has warned it would veto any motion that did not also condemn the suicide bombing.

"When the United States says that Israel is defending itself when it attacks an abandoned civilian target under untrue pretexts and threatens to use its (U.N.) veto against condemnation . . . this will have negative results on relations," Kanafani said.

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