DAMASCUS, 14 January 2005 — Syria said yesterday the stability of Iraq was a strategic requirement for Damascus but the world community should not ask Syria to play a role larger than its capabilities.

“We ask the others and our friends in particular not to ask Syria to shoulder more than it can bear,” Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara told a joint news conference with his visiting Italian counterpart Gianfranco Fini. His remarks came after Fini said the responsibility of securing the long desert border between the two countries fell on Syria because “it is an organized state that is capable of preserving these borders”.

Shara said: “I hope that the translator was wrong when he said Syria should bear the responsibility when it comes to the security of Iraq.”

Earlier in January, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Syria has made a lot of progress in controlling its border with Iraq but still needed to do more to stop fighters moving across it.

Washington has also accused Syria of harboring former Iraqi officials who direct insurgents. Damascus denies those charges and says it is doing its best to tighten control of the hundreds of kilometers of border.

Shara said it was illogical to blame poor security in Iraq on Syria especially as US figures have shown that 98 percent of insurgents were Iraqis and only two percent foreigners. He instead accused Israel of mounting “a campaign” to accuse Syria of playing a role in the insurgency. He did not elaborate.

He also described as the “wrong diagnosis” statements and some media reports that blame Syria for the continued insurgency in Iraq. “If you do not diagnose the true illness in Iraq, the situation cannot be rectified.”

Syria has called for a swift end of the presence of occupation troops in Iraq. It vehemently opposed the US-led war in Iraq.

Israelis of Iraqi Origin Able to Vote in Iraqi Vote

Israelis of Iraqi origin will be able to take part in this month’s Iraqi election but only if they vote outside the Jewish state, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said yesterday.

“Israelis of Iraqi origin will be authorized to vote in the elections to parliament,” said Sarah Tosh of the Geneva-based IOM which is organizing an out-of-country vote for Iraqi expatriates.

Tosh said that voters however would have to cast their ballots in one of 14 countries which have set up special polling booths for the Jan. 30 ballot, the nearest of which is in Amman, the capital of neighboring Jordan.

Anyone who wants to register for voting must present two forms of identity and present proof that they have at least an Iraqi father between Jan. 17 and 23. Voting will take place between Jan. 28 and 30.

Mordechai Ben Porat, president of the association of Israeli Jews of Iraqi origin, told AFP however that he doubted “any Israelis will actually travel to Jordan just to vote.” Porat said there were around 240,000 Israelis of Iraqi origin.