Syria: Washington's threats are baseless; Israel makes demands on Syria
Syria-USA, Politics, 4/15/2003

The American campaign against Syria has moved to a new phase of escalation, as Israel has joined this campaign directly.

The US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that Washington will discuss "likely diplomatic or economic threats" or others against the Syrians, while the US defense secretary said that Syria had conducted tests on chemical weapons during the past 15 months.

While Israel was feeding the wave of the American escalation against Damascus, Israel openly demanded main requests from Syria: expulsion of Hizbullah from the south of Lebanon; removing of the missiles installed by the Hizbullah party, deployment of the Lebanese army in the south, stopping transport of Iranian weapons to the said party as well as driving out the leaderships of the Palestinian resistance organizations from Damascus.

An Israeli official said that "Israel does not seek to escalate with Syria but Syria plays with fire as it threatens of the weapons of horror it owns." Following talks with the Kuwaiti Minister of State For Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Powell said that the US thinks of imposing sanctions against Syria as a result of its position concerning the Iraqi war. He explained "we will discuss likely diplomatic or economic measures and others with the passing of time" against Damascus.

Powell continued he hopes that Syria will realize its duty in "the new surrounding." He continued "we are in contacts with the Syrian authorities and we have an active ambassador there who will continue to be in contact with them to always brief them on our interests and we will see how things will develop."

The American foreign office secretary repeated accusations against Syria of having mass destruction weapons and of developing them exactly as "President Bush had stated." The spokeswoman for the Syrian foreign ministry Butheina Shabaan considered the American accusations which talked about Syria's having chemical weapons and of supporting Iraqi leaders to flee as "baseless." Shabaan said that the US defense secretary ( Donald Rumsfeld) knows that the only country in the region which owns chemical, biological and nuclear weapons is Israel which threatens its neighbors and occupies their lands, rather than Syria.

Replying to Bush's request who asked within three days Syria to be "collaborative" concerning the Iraqi issue, Shabaan indicated that "Syria has been always very constructive and transparent." She stressed that her country hopes to maintain a "constructive dialogue with the US. She said that Syria does not consider the wave of accusations as a "threat."

Commenting on the American accusations which say that Syria provided aid for the regime of Saddam Hussein before and after its collapse and Syria had received Iraqi officials, Shabaan considered that "finding ( Saddam's brother ) near the borders proves that Syria did not permit him to get into Syria."

Previous Stories:
  Moussa- rejected American accusation against Syria   (4/14/2003)
  Arab dailies call for coherent Arab stance against US accusation on Syria   (4/14/2003)
  Bush warns Damascus against sheltering Iraqi regime, reviving accountability act   (4/12/2003)

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