Powell and Syria

The Lebanese daily al-Safir said that the US secretary of State Colin Powell stressed he had held very frank talks with the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara in which he ( Powel) said that Washington will not ignore the activities of the organizations in views as terrorists.

On the possibility of Syria's being as a target for American punishment measures, Powel said he had held with al-Shara talks at the UN that he described as direct, " in which we looked into each other's eyes just three feet apart and I said during that that terrorism is terrorism and that terrorists who claim they are nationalist militants and kill innocent civilians are not militants, rather terrorists and in order to have a progress forward in the relations between the US and Syria and to put the past behind us. And if this is what you want you have to realize that we will not ignore these activities sponsored or backed by Syria or finding the safe haven in Syria."

Powell added " the Syrians had said and did indeed certain things and recently co-operated with us," in remarks to contacts currently made between political and intelligence officials in the two countries following the attacks against New York and Washington, during which information were exchanged on Arab terrorist organizations that co-operated with the al-Qaida organization headed by Osama Bin Laden.

Powel said that such cooperation by the Syrians indicate that they are seeking better relations with the US and that there are opportunities that we can explore in this regard.