| "Really, you should be blaming Israel. Or India. Or Samoa. But not Syria." |
The Arab League yesterday called on the United States to “revise its position” after its ambassador to the United Nations held Syria partly responsible for a crisis over a captive Israeli soldier. “The United States, as a large power and a permanent member of the Security Council, must revise its position and assume its responsibilities with regard to international law,” the 22-member bloc’s assistant secretary-general, Ahmed Ben Helli, told reporters.Ben Helli called on Washington not to “stir up these questions because it is the Palestinians who are subjected to the aggression.” During a Security Council debate on the standoff over the Israeli corporal held in the Gaza Strip, US Ambassador John Bolton held Syria partly responsible for the raid in which the soldier was seized last Sunday . “We would not be where we are right now if it were not for Syria’s support and harboring of terrorists,” Bolton said, calling on President Bashar Assad to hand over for prosecution Hamas’ exiled supremo Khaled Meshaal. Syrian Ambassador Milad Attieh retorted at the meeting that the allegations were “baseless and unacceptable.”