Syria Urges U.N. to Condemn Israeli Airstrike

　　Syria urged the U.N. Security Council to condemn an Israeli airstrike on a purported terrorist camp near Damascus on Sunday, while Is-rael defended the attack and accused its neighbor of harboring terrorists.

　　Syria's United Nations ambas-sador, Faysal Mekdad, said the strike was blatant military aggression, telling an emergency meeting of the Security Council that "Arabs and many people across the globe feel that Israel is above the law." A Syri-an draft resolution condemning the attack calls for Israel to stop commit-ting acts that could threaten regional security or "the already deteriorating situation in the region" will be ex-posed to "dire consequences."

　　However, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said the attack inside Syria was a de-fensive response to the Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Haifa, and did not violate international law. He ac-cused Syria of providing "safe har-bor, training facilitie,, funding, logis-tical support" to terrorist groups.

　　The council meeting was ad-journed after delegates said they needed time to consult with their governments. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, who holds the Security Council presidency for October, did notschedule the next meeting on the Syrian draft.