DAMASCUS: Syria actively encouraged violent protests over blasphemous sketches of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) four years ago in which European embassies in Damascus were attacked, a senior U.S. diplomat said in leaked cables.Charge d'affaires Stephen Seche said Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari gave instructions for mosque preachers to deliver hard-hitting sermons at weekly prayers on the eve of the protests, according to cables released by the WikiLeaks website.
"We concur with contacts that the SARG (Syrian government) allowed these demonstrations to occur and almost certainly helped to facilitate them at the beginning," Seche said in a leaked U.S. cable dated February 5, 2006, a day after the protests.
The blasphemous sketches first appeared in a Danish daily. The blasphemous sketches triggered widespread protests across the Muslim world.
The embassies of Denmark and Norway were both torched in the Syrian protests.
Another cable quoted an influential religious figure saying that days before the protests Otari "instructed the Grand Mufti Sheikh Hassoun to issue a strongly worded directive to the imams delivering Friday sermons in the mosques of Damascus, without setting any ceilings on the type of language to be used."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Damascus at the time of inciting the violence, without giving details. Syria disputed the charges, saying it had done its best to protect embassies during violent protests and would pay for damages.
The February 5 cable said it appeared that Syrian officials had under-estimated the scale of the protests. "Somewhere along the way, the (government), true to form, seems to have miscalculated and lost control," it said.
"The end result left a deeply embarrassed (Syrian government) to pick up the pieces and trying to explain its incredible security lapses."
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