Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria - Mystery surrounded a powerful car bomb explosion yesterday that ripped through a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus, killing at least 17 people and injuring 14 others in the deadliest terrorist attack in Syria in more than two decades. Official Syrian television channels broadcast footage of the blast's aftermath, including a crushed car and the mangled facade of an apartment block with windows blown out. One witness told Syrian television that the bomb was packed into a sedan.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, repeating what Democrats charged was the same mistake made with Iraq, has over the last year approved the sale to Iran and Syria of $187 million worth of equipment with possible military applications, according to figures released yesterday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.The "dual use" technology -- equipment meant for civilian use but capable of being converted to military applications -- included sophisticated photographic equipment for the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission and tractors and digital computer equipment for Iran.

JERUSALEM -- With prospects for peace talks with the Palestinians looking dim, the talk of this town is whether Israel should start talks with the Syrian regime. Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported recently that Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz was off to Washington to seek America's blessing for a secret channel to explore peace talks with Damascus. The Bush administration, which wants to isolate Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been cool to this idea. After talks with Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Mofaz backtracked, saying Israel wanted to give greater priority to peace with the Palestinians.

MADRID, Spain -- Syria continued to balk yesterday at direct talks with Israel today, but the joint Jordanian and Palestinian delegation went ahead with plans to attend a face-to-face meeting with the Israelis and joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in pressing Syria to do likewise."

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that U.S. troops will be required to guarantee peace between Israel and Syria, and predicted that a formal peace treaty with Jordan will be reached this year."

THEY ALWAYS KNEW how to make peace. Israel and Syria have understood since 1967 what the other requires. Compared to the complexities and emotions dealt with in the agreement between Israel and the PLO, this one is easy. The question was always whether they wanted to do it. Most of the time, Syria did not. The dictator Hafez el Assad has used the Golan Heights as the issue around which to keep Syrians loyal or sullenly passive to his regime. He has always reserved room for maneuver, avoiding commitment.

WASHINGTON -- Syria and Israel have held private, high-level peace negotiations under U.S. sponsorship in Washington for the last six months in an effort to break their deadlock, senior U.S. and Middle East officials said yesterday.The face-to-face talks shifted to an even higher level last week, when the army chiefs of staff of both countries met for the first time in publicly announced meetings in Washington capped by a private, 40-minute session at the White House with President Clinton.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers in both parties say they will renew a push for economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria when Congress returns at the end of the month, reviving proposals resisted by the White House last year. Advocates of the sanctions, which have bipartisan support in the House and Senate, said they do not envision immediate military action against Syria. But they say the legislation would provide the framework for an aggressive new effort to force Syria to abandon its occupation of Lebanon, support of terrorism and suspected possession of weapons of unconventional weapons.

THE ASSASSINATION of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 4 by an Israeli extremist was meant to halt the peace process. The net result may have been to propel it forward.Mr. Rabin appeared to consider his government so weak after the peace with the PLO that he would not reach agreement on trading the Golan Heights for peace with Syria until after elections expected next October. His successor, Shimon Peres, who was on the assassin's list, is barreling ahead.Not that Mr. Peres has more authority among Israelis.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria has a friend in Ranar Munzir. Gripping a photo of Syrian President Bashar Assad close to her heart, the 23-year-old student from eastern Lebanon was one of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets of central Beirut yesterday to show her support for Lebanon's neighbor and self-proclaimed protector. Demonstrators swung from palm trees and light posts waving red-and-white Lebanese flags, chanted anti-American slogans and held placards that read "Thank you Syria," "Thank you Assad" and "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."