Syria did not take part in the UN voting because of time limit

The assistant for Syria's representative at the UN Security Council Faisal Miqdad said yesterday that his country did not take part in the voting session on the US resolution concerning the post war on Iraq because of the short time available to study it.

Miqdad told journalists following the vote "we have asked for few minutes which were not given to us." He explained that when the UN Security Council was meeting at 9:30 at New York time, the Syrian government was meeting in Damascus to decide its position and therefore it was not given the time before moving to vote."

He added that Syria wanted for a long time to lift the sanctions and actively took part in the negotiations concerning the Anglo- Britain decision.

But Miqdad refused to define whether Damascus had taken a decision in support of the resolution or not.

The US representative at the UN said that Syria still would be able to join the vote, sending a message to this effect to the President of the UN Security Council.