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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (5890)	4/14/2003 9:41:54 PM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Syrian FM says if U.S. attacks, Israel will also suffer as a result By Daniel Sobelman and Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk a-Shara said Sunday that if the United States decides to attack Syria, Israel will also be harmed as a result. Shara also rejected claims that Syria was providing shelter to senior Iraqi leaders, and said that the Americans "know well that these accusations have no basis." According to the Syrian foreign minister, Syria is not taking the American "threats" seriously, which "don't reflect the general feeling in the U.S." He estimated that U.S. accusations against Syria were based on false information provided by Israel. Shara's comments came after U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday repeated warnings to Syria that it must cooperate with Washington and not harbor Iraqi leaders who may flee across their common border. "Syria just needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners, not harbor any (Iraqi) Baathists, any military officials, any people who need to be held to account," Bush told reporters. Bush also contended that Syria, Iraq's northwestern neighbor, has chemical weapons, a charge made in recent CIA reports and one denied by Syria. "We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," the president said. He warned Syria, Iran and North Korea that Iraq's example shows "we're serious about stopping weapons of mass destruction." Bush had called Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil." Asked whether Syria could face military action if it does not turn over Iraqi leaders, Bush said: "They just need to cooperate." Bush said he might contact Syrian leaders on Sunday to make clear his warning. Syria's deputy ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha, denied that his country was harboring escaped Iraqis. He said it was the responsibility of U.S. troops to monitor Iraq's border with Syria. Rumsfeld: Syrian fighters killed or captured by U.S. forces in Iraq Earlier in the day, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld charged on Sunday that Syrian fighters had been killed or captured by U.S. forces in Iraq, but declined to say what Washington might do if Saddam Hussein were found in Syria. "The last thing I would do would be to discuss that," he said in a television interview, stressing that if the missing Iraqi president turned up in the neighboring state, it would show that "Syria would have made an even bigger mistake." "The (Syrian) government is making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad judgments in my view," Rumsfeld said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation" program. The secretary has in recent days repeatedly charged that Damascus has not only voiced support for Saddam's fallen government, but has been helping senior Iraqi leaders enter Syria to stay or move on to other countries. But on Sunday, Rumsfeld also said Syrian nationals had been actively involved in fighting against U.S. forces, including many in Baghdad. "There are a number of non-Iraqis who are in the country, particularly in Baghdad we find ... A lot from Syria, most from Syria it appears," he said. Asked if they were involved in fighting, Rumsfeld said, "Absolutely. In firefights, a lot of them got killed last night." The Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, which has openly called for the defeat of U.S. and British forces by Iraq, earlier dismissed charges from Rumsfeld that it allowed night vision equipment and other military aid into Iraq. Questions about timing Syria has been on the U.S. list of countries supporting terrorism for many years and some conservative hawks in Washington say that after Iraq, the United States should set its sights on "regime change" in Syria and Iran. No one is explicitly advocating force against Syria or Iran but conservatives inside and out of the U.S. government hope the Iraq war will signal to Damascus and Tehran that seeking weapons of mass destruction may be hazardous to their health. Some private analysts have raised questions about U.S. open attacks on Damascus at a time when the U.S. military is involved in a war in Iraq and a major diplomatic face-off with Pyongyang over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. In Beirut, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said on Sunday the time was not right for the United States to raise pressure on Syria by accusing it of aiding Saddam's collapsed regime. Villepin said after meeting Lebanese leaders the international community should focus instead on rebuilding Iraq and reviving Middle East peace efforts. "The time is for consultation, for dialogue, and we should be very careful in putting all our energies to try to find solutions because we do have enough problems," he said before heading for Saudi Arabia, his last stop on a Middle East tour. But Rumsfeld said Washington would not "deny the truth." "The fact of the matter is that Syria has been unhelpful and pretending that that's not the case it strikes me is to deny the truth. And I don't think you can live a lie," he said on CBS. "We did see busloads of people coming out of Syria into the country. Some were stopped - the ones we could find we turned around and sent them back. Some we impounded and put them in enemy prisoner of war camps. And others are getting killed," he said. The secretary repeated charges by the U.S. military that one bus found had had contained several hundred thousand dollars and leaflets that suggested that people would be rewarded if they killed Americans. Rumsfeld was asked if Syria was going to pay a price for supporting Saddam. "I'm sure they already are if you think about it," he said. "I mean who in the world would want to invest in Syria? Who would want to go in tourism in Syria? They're associating with the wrong people and the effect of that hurts the Syrian people." U.S. President George W. Bush: Syria just needs to cooperate. (Reuters)