PARIS, 16 April 2003 — World leaders and press reacted with a mixture of caution and dismay yesterday to the United States’ escalating threats to Syria, which it accuses of harboring Iraqi leaders and chemical weapons.
While Britain and Spain said the situation could be defused peacefully, former colonial power France said it had seen no evidence to back up Washington’s allegations, which Syria angrily denies.
Having toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, the US has turned its attention to Syria, accusing it of supporting terrorism, developing weapons of mass destruction and harboring members of Saddam’s regime fleeing from neighboring Iraq.
Top aides to US President George W. Bush stopped short of threatening military action but warned Damascus to take stock of the US-led rout in Iraq.
Syria yesterday condemned Washington’s “threats and accusations” and said they were inspired by Israel, the strongest military power in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in remarks published yesterday, repeated charges that Baghdad had moved military equipment to Syria on the eve of the conflict. But he did not say whether that included weapons of mass destruction.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Rostom Al-Zoubi, told CNN: “We don’t have weapons of mass destruction. It is Israel which has a big arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Why focus on Syria at this time, forgetting Israel. This is ... double standard.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush’s staunchest ally in the war on Iraq, has pursued a more cautious line on Syria, whose President Bashar Al-Assad last year had tea with the queen at Buckingham Palace.
Blair’s spokesman said yesterday Damascus was showing signs of a willingness to meet Washington’s demands to cooperate and Britain’s Minister for Middle East Affairs Mike O’Brien visited the Syrian capital on Monday.
“The first thing is that we want the Syrians to cooperate, and we believe that there is some evidence — in terms of border controls and so on — of the Syrians starting to respond,” said the spokesman. “But let’s take this step by step, and see how the Syrians respond to the overtures that we have made.”
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Syria would not be the target of any military action and that he hoped to talk to Assad as soon as possible. “Syria is and will remain a friend of Spain and will not be the target of any military action,” Aznar said during a visit to Warsaw. “I am convinced that the conflict (in Iraq) will not spread to other countries in the Middle East.”
But France insisted it had seen no evidence to back up the charge made by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Syria conducted chemical weapons tests in the past year. “The situation around the world is dangerous enough, without our targeting one country or another on the question of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” French European Affairs Minister Noelle Lenoir said.
On Monday, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called for restraint and moderation following the US accusations, saying dialogue was the only way to resolve problems in the Middle East as a whole. “Do not let us underestimate the fact that this region today — whether at government or popular level — is experiencing a very deep feeling of unease, frustration, sometimes even humiliation,” de Villepin said at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg. “In such cases we must to talk to each other,” he added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he had seen no evidence to back up the US charges but urged Damascus to “act wisely”. “So far we don’t have any evidence, but maybe the Americans have, we will see of course,” he said.
A senior Iranian official said yesterday that any US military action against Syria should be seen as a prelude to action against Tehran. And if Syria were attacked, Iran should not remain neutral as it has during the US-led war on Iraq, Mohsen Rezaie, the secretary of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, told a press conference.
“The US threats against Syria are not comparable to the threats against Iran, but any action against Syria is a prelude to one against Iran,” said Rezaie, who headed Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards under former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Rezaie said Syria is one of four countries along with Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan “where the US wants to gain a foothold.”
Syria’s policies towards Israel and the presence of its army in Lebanon “have made US and Israeli interests converge in pursuing a US presence there.”
The “Americans will soon present Iran with a series of new demands,” he said without elaborating.
Russian newspapers claimed yesterday that Washington was acquiring an appetite for war following the fall of Saddam and that US tanks were now honing in on Syria.
“Appetites grow in a war,” ran the Kommersant business daily’s front-page banner headline. “The Iraqi crisis has been transformed into a Syrian one.”
The Gazeta splashed a photograph of Bush fumbling with a sandwich as he brings it to his mouth under the headline: “Iraq will be left over for dessert. The US will strike Syria next.”
On Monday, a top Russian Foreign Ministry official urged the United States to exercise more restraint. “Harsh statements from Washington in relation to Damascus can only complicate the already difficult situation in the Middle East after what has already happened,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov. “We would urge greater restraint.”
But Russian state-run television, which has been caustic in its coverage of the Iraq war, failed to comment on the Western threats against Syria Tuesday morning.
However, the Moscow press appeared united in its defense of Damascus, with some arguing that the United States’ only policy in the Middle East was one aimed at defending Israel. “Clouds over Damascus,” the Vremya Novostei, seen as close to President Vladimir Putin, warned. It argued that US plans to defend Israel “may be a reason for war breaking out between the US and Syria”.
Leading US newspapers urged the Bush administration to avoid military threats against Syria. Liberal dailies The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times warned Washington against being viewed as too belligerent in the Arab world.
“Washington will only live up to the worst expectations of the Arab world if it now adopts a belligerent military approach to every nation in the region that it dislikes,” The New York Times said.
In Britain, columnist Amir Taheri said, “The hawks are wrong to urge war against Syria,” but added: “The British government is right to insist that Syria’s leaders can be persuaded to play ball. Assad’s regime has always understood the reality of power and the need to back down when in a position of weakness.”
Support for political and human rights reforms, an end to support for terrorist groups and public support for the Middle East peace “road map” could all be won, Taheri said.
