Newspaper: Syria Had Agents in Britain

LONDON--A newspaper reported yesterday that an undercover Syrian agent worked as a clerk for 20 years in the British Embassy in Damascus and tricked a diplomat there into signing a visa for Nezar Hindawi.

Hindawi was convicted Friday of planting a bomb in luggage his girlfriend tried to bring aboard an Israeli airliner April 17. Britain accused Syria's government of aiding him and broke diplomatic relations.

The Sunday Times said Syrian intelligence placed a Palestinian man in the British Embassy's visa section, and that he persuaded embassy second secretary Anthony Arnold to sign Hindawi's visa "as a matter of routine."

It said the man's role was revealed by a Foreign Office investigative team that went to the British Embassy in Damascus after Hindawi's arrest. The report did not identify its sources.

In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, an Israeli expert on Syria said Hindawi was under orders from Syrian air force intelligence chief Gen. Mohammed el-Khouli to blow up the Israeli El Al plane. El-Khouli reports to Syrian President Hafez Assad.

The Israeli expert, Yossi Olmert, spoke on Israel radio and said his information came from evidence supplied to Britain and Hindawi's own testimony. He did not elaborate.

The Sunday Times did not identify the Palestinian clerk who allegedly worked for Syria, but said he was a senior assistant in the visa section. It said he was about 50 and had gone to Syria as a child.

After Hindawi was arrested in April, the Palestinian disappeared from his job and may now be in the United States, the newspaper said. When he disappeared, so did the embassy's records of Hindawi's visa applications and those of several Syrians who were given British visas, the paper said.

The British Foreign Office confirmed that the senior assistant and a receptionist quit their jobs at the embassy after Hindawi's arrest, but refused to comment on the circumstances.

British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe said Friday that Hindawi's visa was obtained under a false name and that his visa applications twice were backed by notes from the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

The Sunday Times said Hindawi traveled on a Syrian service passport using the name Izzam Shara. It said that on an earlier trip to Britain, Hindawi used a passport that was signed by Andrew Balfour, then Britain's vice-consul in Damascus.

The paper quoted Balfour, now stationed in Dubai, as saying, "It's very much accepted practice if one government gives a note to another saying that this is Joe Soap's official passport, we take their word for it and issue a visa."