Syria calls for world to stop Israel’s strikes at Gaza

Assad government, under attack for Homs massacre, points finger at Israeli aggression

By Elhanan Miller 13 March 2012, 4:26 pm

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Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

A Syrian woman recovers from severe injuries after the army shelled her house in Idlib, north Syria, on Saturday (photo credit: AP/Rodrigo Abd)

Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israel for its military offensive against the Gaza Strip, calling for urgent international intervention against Israel.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the ministry lambasted Israel’s “vicious aggression” against Gaza, demanding that Israel remove its blockade of the strip. Syria is facing mounting international pressure over the past few days for its violent crackdown on civil protests across the country, culminating in an apparent massacre of women and children in Homs Monday.

The statement criticized “suspicious Arab initiatives” against Syria, which, it claimed, served to deflect international attention from Israel’s actions in Gaza. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are leading an Arab coalition, mostly of Gulf states, in support of bolder international action against Syria.

“Gaza, which is drowning in its blood for days, knows for certain that Damascus will continue to support it despite the Arab preoccupation with the conspiracy against Syria,” read the statement, published by the Syrian News Agency SANA.

Parliamentary elections will take place in Syria on May 7 based on the country’s newly ratified constitution, President Bashar Assad announced Tuesday.