Al-Hayat: British official and Syria's ME role, policy
Syria-UK, Politics, 12/14/2002

The London- based al-Hayat daily quoted yesterday an official at the British foreign office saying that the British government pins great importance on a Syrian role to make the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein choose the road of peace, rather than force, expressing his country's concern over the Syrian air flights to Iraq and pumping of the Iraqi oil through the Syrian territories.

The British official continued in a statement to the said paper that the British government believes that clinging to the UN resolutions towards Iraq means keeping pressure on the Iraqi president in order to execute these resolutions.

The paper said that the British official commended the numerous positive developments that took place in Syria, noting that President Bashar al-Assad has inherited a "blocked economy: and hostile foreign policies, mostly to the west" and that President Bashar al-Assad explained in his taking oath ceremony speech that he seek to change these policies.

The British official indicated the general improvement on the issue of human rights in Syria and the number of prisoners and detainees released by President Bashar al-Assad. He stressed the importance of starting the launch of freedom to the press, the intellectual and public freedoms and woman's participation in the general Syrian affairs.

On the differences of stances between the Syrian and British governments, the British official indicated that his government has always explained to the Syrian government its concern over the continued existence of "rejectionist" Palestinian organizations in Damascus, considering that the existence of offices for these organizations in Syria does not serve the Palestinian interests, nor peace.

He added: we do encourage President Bashar al-Assad to urge these organizations to give up violence and explain the importance of returning back to negotiations and closing offices of these organizations. He indicated that: the British government holds relations with the political wing, rather the military wing of the Hizbullah party in order to maintain a dialogue and reach a message to the leadership of the Party on that we do not accept the use of force to achieve political purposes.

Concerning the Syrian existence in Lebanon, the British official said that some talk about a Syrian occupation of Lebanon while the Lebanese government denies this matter.

On western allegations that Syria owns biological and chemical weapons, he said there is big difference between the Iraqi regime and the Syrian regime and there are no similarities between them. He explained that Syria is not an isolated country, rather an active and effective element and is cooperating with the USA in fighting international terrorism. He continued that the Syrian President is working for openness and modernization of the Syrian state, noting that Syria might have a biological and chemical project, but it did not use these weapons against its peoples and neighbors. The British official said: we always express to the Syrians our concern over them not having signed "the Hague" agreement concerning these weapons and we do urge them to sign this agreement and other related agreements.

He said that the American threats to attack Syria and other countries owning mass destruction weapons like Iran and Northern Korea might take place only in one condition under the possibility of Syria's using of this weapons to strike the Americans. But this assumption is very unlikely.

The British official did not deny nor confirm that Britain tries to bring view points closer between Syria and the USA, and just confined to saying: "we will brief the Americans with the content of our talks with President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to Britain on Monday."

Previous Stories:
  British officials welcome al-Assad's visit to Britain   (12/7/2002)
  Al-Assad to visit Britain   (12/4/2002)
  Syrian- Ukraine transport relations   (11/28/2002)

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