The envoys of Israel and Syria traded threatening remarks in the Security Council chamber Sunday as the Council was presented with a draft resolution by Syria condemning Israel's airstrike on a site in Syria as a violation of international law.

After the four-hour meeting, the United States envoy, John D. Negroponte, signaled that he would probably veto the resolution unless it included explicit condemnation of groups that have claimed credit for terrorist attacks and it called for dismantling the "infrastructure" supporting terrorism.

The mounting of tensions over the past 24 hours was vividly apparent in the unusual weekend meeting of the Council, during which every member warned against intensifying the conflict while the two protagonists squared off with mutual excoriations, laden with references to the region's history of bloodshed and dispossession.

The Israeli ambassador, Dan Gillerman, issued a blistering denunciation of Syria, saying, "There are few better exhibits of state sponsorship for terrorism than the one provided by the Syrian regime." He called the Sunday attack a "measured, defensive operation," and compared Syria's appeal to the Council to the Taliban's making such an appeal after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He added, "Syria would do well to take a hard look in the mirror and count itself fortunate that it has not yet, for unfortunate reasons, been the subject of concerted international action as part of the global campaign against terrorism." After a brief pause, Mr. Gillerman said, slowly, "Not yet."

For his part, the Syrian envoy, Fayssal Mekdad, made it clear that his country's willingness to come to the Security Council for assistance indicated "maximum self-restraint," but added his government's warning that "Syria is not incapable of creating a resisting and deterring balance that would force Israel to reconsider its calculations."

Mr. Mekdad called the raid a "true and direct embodiment of the terrorism which Israel falsely claims it is fighting."

Fourteen of the 15 Council members criticized or condemned the Israeli action as a needless mounting of violence. Most of these also condemned the suicide bombing Saturday at a Haifa restaurant that left 19 people, including three children, dead.

The remarks of Chile's ambassador, Heraldo Mu?oz, were typical. "We condemn the bombing perpetrated by the Israeli airstrike against Syrian territory which flouts international law and the objectives and principles of the United Nations' charter," he said. "This conduct is unacceptable and indeed is dangerous as it will expand the scope of the conflict." He then condemned the Haifa bombing.

Mr. Negroponte avoided any criticism of Israel but called on "all sides to avoid heightening tension in the Middle East and to think carefully about the consequences of their actions."

The flare-up of violence and the draft resolution that Syria presented on behalf of the Arab League provided a distraction — clearly unwelcome, from Washington's point of view — to the deliberations over the American draft resolution on Iraq's near-term future.

That draft resolution's chances were thrown into doubt late last week when Secretary General Kofi Annan raised basic questions about whether the political role envisioned for the United Nations was realistic and whether he could send United Nations personnel into that dangerous environment under those circumstances.

"I don't know what the impact will be, but it certainly doesn't help," one State Department official said Sunday evening, speaking on the condition that he not be identified. "It complicates things."

The decision to call the session in the final hours before Yom Kippur — which Mr. Gillerman angrily noted was "the holiest day in the Jewish calendar" — simply added to the tensions in the Council chambers, where representatives of Muslim nations or organizations denounced the Israeli action.

"The atmosphere is pretty nasty," the State Department official said.

The draft resolution offered by Syria demands that Israel "desist from any such acts or threats which might lead to a dangerous deterioration that threatens regional and international peace and security."

Mr. Negroponte, who is presiding over the Council for the month of October, said after the meeting that further consultations would take place "as soon as possible" but left it unclear how quickly the resolution might come to a vote.

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