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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigBull who wrote (97917)	5/11/2003 6:22:57 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Powell's message to Syria: U.S. to Syria: Don't Be 'On Wrong Side of History' Sun May 11, 2003 03:02 PM ET reuters.com JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that Syria would find itself "on the wrong side of history" if it tried to destabilize postwar Iraq or continue harboring radical Palestinian groups. Powell spoke in an Israeli television interview after launching talks with Israel and the Palestinians on implementing a new "road map" peace plan. He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should have "every incentive to respond" to issues he raised in talks with him in Damascus a week ago addressing strategic change in the Middle East after the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-led war. Washington wants Syria to help in rounding up Saddam loyalists, discourage the spread of mass-destruction weapons in the region and cease backing Palestinian and Lebanese groups that Washington classifies as terrorist, concerned that their conflict with Israel could endanger the "road map." "What I said to (Assad) very clearly is that there are things we believe he should do if he wants a better relationship with the United States, if he wants to play a helpful role in solving the crisis in the region," Powell told Israeli TV. "So if President Assad chooses not to respond, if he chooses to dissemble, if he chooses to find excuses, then he will find that he is on the wrong side of history," he went on. Powell has dismissed suggestions that Syria was next on any list of U.S. military targets after Iraq. After his meeting with Assad, Powell said Syria had taken measures to rein in Palestinian militant groups with offices in Damascus by carrying out "some closures." Syrian officials said later the groups' offices served as media outlets and that none had been shut down. They said they were interested in dialogue, not ultimatums from Washington. Assad, in a Newsweek magazine interview released on Saturday, linked curbing radical Palestinian groups to getting the occupied Golan Heights back from Israel. Israel captured the Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and Assad said Syria was prepared to negotiate with Israel to get it back. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week he was ready to reopen peace negotiations with Syria but without guarantees of the outcome.

To: BigBull who wrote (97917)	5/11/2003 6:30:31 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

MKO disarms? Iranian opposition guerrillas submit to US control in Iraq iranmania.com ©2003 IranMania.com & AFP Photo/Roberto Schmidt US Army General Ray Odierno(C), commander of the 4th Infantry Division, walks towards the building where he held disarmament talks with the leaders of Iran's main armed opposition group based in Iraq. The disarmament deal was struck Saturday after two days of talks between leaders of the People's Mujahedeen and US 4th Infantry Division commander General Ray Odierno at a guerrilla base in northeastern Iraq. Odierno said the group's cooperation with US forces and its commitment to democracy in Iran meant its status as a "terrorist organisation" in Washington should be reviewed. "I would say that any organisation that has given up their equipment to the coalition clearly is cooperating with us, and I believe that should lead to a review of whether they are still a terrorist organisation or not," he said. Under the agreement, the Mujahedeen's 4,000 to 5,000 fighters -- many of whom were educated in the United States and Europe -- will gather at one of their base camps in northeastern Iraq. Their equipment, enough for a mechanised division, will be collected at another camp and both camps will be guarded by coalition forces. Odierno, speaking to AFP after negotiating the deal near the Iranian border on Saturday, said the weapons would not be available to the guerrillas "unless we agree to allow them to have access". "It is not a surrender. It is an agreement to disarm and consolidate," Odierno said. "It's clear to me that they are passionate about their beliefs and they believe in a democratic Iran. I probably didn't quite understand that when I began this process." The Mujahedeen has been using Iraqi soil as a base to attack the Islamic regime in Iran for more than a decade. Iran has also labelled it a terrorist organisation. But Odierno admitted that it shared "some of the same goals" as the United States in "forming democracy and fighting oppression". The group will also prove an invaluable source of information about an Iranian-backed Shiite militia group, the Badr Brigade, one of the Americans' main military concerns after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Badr Brigade guerrillas are Iraqi Shiites who were trained and supported by the Iranian government to extend the Islamic revolution into Iraq, although Tehran denies having any ongoing involvement in its neighbour's affairs. Odierno has said he believes the Badr Brigade is still being used as a tool for the "enforcement" of Iranian influence among Iraq's Shiites, which account for an estimated 60 percent of the Iraqi population. Badr is the military wing of Iraq's main Shiite opposition party, the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Its leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim made a triumphant return to Iraq on Saturday after 23 years of exile in Iran. In contrast to the standoff between US and Badr forces in Iraq, US and Mujahedeen troops have mingled cordially during the discussions here in recent days. The group agreed peacefully to hand over its checkpoints in the area to US forces on Friday. Washington's dialogue with the Mujahedeen has infuriated Iran, which has accused the United States of hypocrisy in its "war on terror". US President George W. Bush labelled Iran as part of an "axis of evil" last year along with Saddam's Iraq and communist North Korea.