Despite the threat of U.S. sanctions, hard-line Syria led calls Friday for next week's annual Arab summit to take a tough stand against Israel in the wake of the killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Damascus' insistence that Israel be punished for assassinating the Palestinian leader in a rocket attack March 22 in Gaza could become the focus of the two-day summit that starts here Monday, instead of an American-backed blueprint for Middle East political reform and attempts to revive a stalled Arab peace plan.
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