Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991 TAG: 9103230039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: DAMASCUS, SYRIA LENGTH: Medium
The plot against U.S. Ambassador to Greece Michael Sotirhos was discovered last December, the diplomats from Western Europe and the Middle East said.
A few weeks later Syrian agents effectively thwarted a plan to assassinate U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wizner, according to the diplomats, who requested anonymity.
Both assassination tries were scheduled to be carried out by local terrorists in Egypt and Greece after Jan. 15, the diplomats said. Jan. 15 was the deadline that the U.S.-led coalition, backed by United Nations resolutions, had given Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face war.
The diplomats said the attacks were to come during the bombing campaign against Iraq, which the Iraqi government had anticipated.
Both plots were foiled after Syrian agents infiltrated organizations in Egypt and Greece that had contracted with Iraqi intelligence to carry out the assassinations, the diplomats said.
The diplomats did not provide further details.
Syria is a member of the anti-Iraq coalition and a major element of the vital Arab wing of that coalition. Ironically, the United States has been critical of Syria's role in funding, training and harboring people Washington believes have been involved in terrorist activities.
U.S.-Syrian relations have improved in recent months, but Syria remains on the State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The plan to kill Sotirhos in Greece was to have been executed by the so-called "November 17" group, a Greek terrorist organization, the diplomats said.
One diplomat said the Abu Nidal group, a radical Palestinian organization based in Baghdad, was behind the plot to kill Wizner. But the other said a Muslim fundamentalist group based in Egypt, acting in collusion with Iraq, was responsible.
by CNB