Syria Offers to Help Free 6 French Hostages in Lebanon

PARIS —  Syrian Premier Abdel-Raouf Kasm said Thursday that Damascus would do “everything possible” to free six Frenchmen held hostage in Lebanon.

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat also offered to help France fight terrorism.

Kasm, in a French radio interview from Damascus, called for “coordination not only with France” but with “all countries honestly seeking serious collaboration with Syria.”

Six Frenchmen are being held hostage by pro-Iranian militiamen in Lebanon, including two diplomats and a journalist held for more than 1 1/2 years.

Kasm said he is satisfied with France’s relations with his country because it showed a desire for political independence, “outside of American-Israeli pressures.”

“We ask neither France nor other countries to be against Israelis and Americans,” he said. “We ask them to follow a political objective, and we are seeing a lot of objectivity in French policy,” he said.

France has been criticized for its refusal to break diplomatic ties with Syria despite British claims that the Syrian government has been involved in terrorist activities.

In the last two weeks, Britain and the United States have withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus, and the Netherlands announced Wednesday that it would follow suit. But French Premier Jacques Chirac told the National Assembly on Wednesday that while France was in “solidarity” with Britain against terrorism, he feared such “aggressive” actions could turn Arab nations against the West.

Arafat, in an interview published Thursday in the weekly news magazine Paris Match, said, “We are ready to furnish (France with) any aid that is asked of us.”

“In the past, we have collaborated on investigations conducted by the governments of Italy and Austria,” Arafat said. “We want to aid the French people in the face of this new aggression.”

Arab groups have claimed responsibility for 11 bombings in Paris this year, five in September, that have killed 12 people and wounded more than 250.