DAMASCUS, 15 April 2003 — The United States ratcheted up pressure on Syria yesterday by threatening sanctions over charges that Damascus is harboring Iraqi leaders, developing chemical weapons and supporting terrorism.
“Syria is indeed a rogue nation,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
With Saddam Hussein toppled, Washington has directed its ire toward Syria, charging that some Iraqi government leaders and members of Saddam’s family may have escaped across the border into Syria, with assent from Damascus.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States has “intelligence that indicates that some Iraqi people have been allowed into Syria,” either to stay or in transit. He gave no names and did not say where they went after leaving Syria.
And Rumsfeld said Syria was also allowing people to cross into Iraq. “We have intelligence that shows that Syria has allowed Syrians and others to come across the border into Iraq, people armed and people carrying leaflets indicating that they’ll be rewarded if they kill Americans and members of the coalition,” Rumsfeld said.
However, Syria rejected US accusations that it had chemical weapons and was sheltering former Iraqi leaders.
The increased US pressure prompted Syria to seek support from other countries. Syrian President Bashar Assad met with a junior British envoy yesterday on the future of the region post-Saddam Hussein, as well as Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Sudanese President Omar Bashir. He spoke to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by phone Sunday night.
“We will discuss with our brothers in Syria and other Arab countries how we can avoid the dangers ahead,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said in Cairo following talks yesterday between Mubarak and visiting King Abdallah of Jordan.
Syrian officials stuck to their guns in denying Washington’s charges.
“We have no chemical weapons,” Syria’s deputy UN ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said in New York. “We did not give any facilities for Iraqis running away.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bouthayna Shaaban told Al-Jazeera television Sunday night that Syria wanted dialogue with the United States.
“The problem is all the accusations against Syria come from Israel,” she said. “Israel is the primary instigator to undermine Syrian-American relations.”
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara told reporters in Damascus on Saturday that the Israelis want the Americans to go after Syria. “Believe me, even the Israelis will pay the price for it in the future if they don’t tell their friends in Washington to stop it. They (the Israelis) shouldn’t encourage them. They are encouraging a very sinister game,” Shara said.
America’s principal ally in the Iraq war, Britain, played down the prospect of bringing the war to Syria and was less categorical than the Bush administration about whether Syria has weapons of mass destruction. But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, touring the region, said Syria needed to be more cooperative.
“It’s very important for Syria to appreciate that there is a new reality now that the Saddam regime is gone, and that its policy reflect this reality,” he said in Kuwait.
At a news conference in Bahrain, Straw said there are “no plans” to make Syria “next on the list” of coalition targets after Iraq.
