US sets sights on Syria
Monday 14 April 2003, 8:05 AM
In an escalating confrontation, the United States accused Syria of possessing chemical weapons, charged that its nationals had engaged US troops in combat in Baghdad and warned it against allowing senior Iraqi leaders to escape through its territory.
President George W Bush stopped short of threatening US action against Damascus, but his comments were clearly intended as a warning Syria to halt support for the deposed Iraqi regime and its leaders.
"The Syrian government needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners. It must not harbour any Baathists, any military officials who need to be held to account for their tenure" in Iraq, Bush told reporters at the White House.
Many Syrian nationals were killed in fighting overnight in the Iraqi capital and others have been taken prisoner, said US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said Syrians had entered Iraq by the busload.
Rumsfeld also reiterated charges that senior Iraqis have escaped to Syria, and that some have stayed there while others have moved on to other countries.
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"We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," Bush said without elaborating.
US intelligence has previously reported that Syria possesses stockpiles of the nerve gas sarin and is believed to have an active biological program.
Rumsfeld said earlier the United States had reports that some of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction may have been sent to a neighbouring country, but would not identify the country.
"Each situation will require a different response," Bush said. "First things first. We're here in Iraq now."
In an interview with the BBC, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Damascus it would be "very unwise if, suddenly, Syria becomes a haven for all these people who should be brought to justice, who are trying to get out of Baghdad."
"The government's making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad judgment calls, in my view, and they're associating with the wrong people," Rumsfeld said in a interview here with CBS television.
Syrian officials emphatically denied that it was harbouring members of the regime or had weapons of mass destruction, and said Washington was seeking to divert attention from the chaos and lawlessness that had followed the collapse of the Iraqi regime.
"We will not only accept the most rigid inspection regime, we will welcome it heartily," said Imad Moustapha, the number two in the Syrian embassy in the United States.
Rumsfeld declined to comment on a report in the Washington Times that two top Iraqi scientists involved in its weapons of mass destruction program had taken refuge in Syria.
Asked what if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein turned up alive in Syria, Rumsfeld said, "Then I think Syria would have made an even bigger mistake."
©2003 AFP |
