Syrian army chief of staff stresses Damascus' rejection to striking Iraq

The Syrian army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hassan Turkmani on Thursday stressed "Syria will be among the first who reject the American policy to direct a military attack against Iraq."

Turkmani who was talking in a celebration held to mark the graduation of a new shift of cadets of the "al-Assad academy for military engineering " in Aleppo, on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, stressed the "grave current phase the Arab nation is passing."

He called on all the Arabs to mobilize their efforts and unify their ranks in order to achieve an effective Arab solidarity which is capable of deterring these dangers." The Syrian official news agency SANA quoted Turkmani as expressing his regret because the "US administration does not see in the acts carried out by the "Israeli government of Ariel Sharon what is in contradiction to the international laws nor a violation to human rights, rather seeks to find out justifications for the rulers of Tel Aviv under the pretext of preserving the security of the Israelis, ignoring the simplest rights for the Palestinians and the acts of killing, and repression they undergo."

Turkmani also indicated that Israel invested the incidents of September 11 to cover its aggressive policy and attach terrorism accusations to the Arabs and Muslims although the Arabs denounced terrorism and had suffered and still suffering from it." Turkmani said "the US administration was not confined to this stand in supporting the brutal Israeli aggression, but also escalated the pace of its threats to striking Iraq, despite the Arab and international opposition."