War (of Words) with Syria
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Wednesday, Apr 30, 2003
'Shaming effect' on Arab world
The Washington Times -- April 29
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of President Bush's Iraq policy, said yesterday that the ouster of Saddam Hussein has had a "shaming effect" on the Arab and Muslim world where other tyrannical rulers exist.
"In terms of the larger picture, I think they're like several other countries on a sort of dead-end course," he said. "They're less immediately threatening to us than some of those countries, but I think they're going to have to face that opportunity."
Mr. Wolfowitz said he believes Damascus facilitated the flow of hundreds of foreign guerrillas into Iraq before and during the war.
"There's no question that paramilitaries crossed the border, and it's a pretty tightly controlled border, so I have to assume they had some degree of official sanction," he said. "That's why we expressed very strong concern about what was going on."
But since the fall of Baghdad, the Syrians appear to have stopped more paramilitary fighters from getting into Iraq. "There does seem to be a change in that respect," he said.
But the fact that Syria "should have had an indulgence in sending killers into Iraq to threaten our people, that was simply unacceptable," Mr. Wolfowitz said.
Asked whether Syria is showing signs of political reform, like Iran, Mr. Wolfowitz said Iran tolerates more diversity of opinion.
"Oddly, in a certain way Iran is a more dangerous country in some of its policies," Mr. Wolfowitz said. "But it's a more open country in terms of the degree of diversion of opinion that's possible inside Iran."
"Syria's a pretty tightly regimented place and less obviously open to political change," he said.
"But that doesn't mean it can't change. In this modern world no country is immune, except maybe North Korea, to information from the outside. And when I spoke earlier for the need for Syria to confront the dead-end that it's on, there probably are people within that regime who can understand that they're on a dead-end course. Whether they can persuade President [Bashar] Assad to change it is a different matter."
[More detail on the Lantos-Assad meeting.]
Syria Calls for Peace Talks, but Israel Voices Skepticism
New York Times -- April 29
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM - Responding to a Syrian call to revive peace talks, Israel said today that it was skeptical of the offer but would be willing to meet as long as Israel was not required to make concessions in advance.
The proposal by the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was relayed to Israel by Representative Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California. He met the Syrian leader in Damascus on Saturday and saw Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel in Jerusalem on Monday.
Mr. Assad ``asked me to convey to the Israeli prime minister his desire to talk to Israel about various outstanding issues,'' Mr. Lantos told Israeli television on Monday night.
Syria Says Lebanese Hezbollah For 'Liberation'
IslamOnline -- April 26
DAMASCUS - As The United States renewed bellicose rhetoric against Syria Saturday, April 26, calling on the Arab country to cut support to Hezbollah, Damascus said the sole objective of the Lebanese Shiite group is to liberate the Israeli-occupied land.
U.S. Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, said using the "historic opportunity" to improve Syrian-U.S. ties after the downfall of Saddam Hussein is conditioned on Damascus ending support for "terrorism."
"I hope it (Syria) will not flounder on continued misguided policies like military support for Hezbollah or the maintenance of terrorist headquarters in Damascus," Lantos told reporters after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"Hezbollah is a political party whose sole objective is to liberate its territory from the Israeli occupation," Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bussaina Shaaban told a Washington forum.
The Syrian diplomat noted that Syria and other Middle East nations have been made nervous by the outcome of the war in Iraq and are troubled by murky U.S. motives for undertaking the invasion.
"Where are the (weapons of mass destruction) that were such a big reason for launching this war?" she asked, raising questions about long-term U.S. intentions in the Middle East.
"In many Arab countries," Shaaban added, the U.S. occupation "means the undermining of our indigenous civilization, and the bringing in (of) another, Western civilization that is not ours."
U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, told the same forum at which Shaaban spoke that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fails to rein in the group, Washington should take action in concert "with our allies in the global coalition on terrorism,"
Beirut favours dialogue with US on Hezbollah
Lebanese FM says his country favours three-way dialogue with Syria, US about Shiite Muslim movement.
Middle East Online -- April 29
BEIRUT - Lebanon is in favor of three-way talks with Damascus and Washington about the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement, Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said here Monday after talks with the US ambassador.
Ambassador Vincent Battle called for dialogue and "no doubt he will find the door open here and with our Syrian brothers, because it is important for us to make known our views," Obeid told reporters.
Hizbollah fires at Israeli jets over south Lebanon
Reuters -- April 29
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group said it unleashed a barrage of anti-aircraft fire on Tuesday at Israeli warplanes that swooped over southern Lebanon.
"The air defence unit of the Islamic Resistance... confronted Israeli enemy warplanes that violated Lebanese sovereignty over the eastern sector of south Lebanon," a statement from the Syrian and Iranian-backed group said.
FM: Syria won't interfere in Iraq
UPI -- April 29
By Thanaa Imam
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said Tuesday his country will not interfere in Iraq's internal affairs and noted that forming a temporary administration in Baghdad was normal, but difficult.
"We don't wish to interfere in the Iraqi affairs," Sharaa said during a joint news conference with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Damascus.
He, however, said Syria and Iraq had "historical ties deriving from centuries of joint interests that no regime can cancel."
[Depends on the definition of the word "threaten".]
Rumsfeld Says United States Not Threatening Syria
Rueters -- April 29
"We have no hidden agenda," Rumsfeld told a news conference after talks in Riyadh with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz.
"I think it's a mischaracterization that we threatened Syria. We are not in the business of threatening," Rumsfeld said. "It was a fact, not a threat and that's all I have to say."
Powell to Visit Syria and Lebanon, but Delays Israel Trip
New York Times, April 29
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WSHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, preparing for an intensive new phase of American diplomacy in the Middle East, said today that he would travel to Syria and Lebanon this week. At the same time, administration officials said that a long-awaited plan intended to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would be published on Wednesday.
Mr. Powell will meet with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in Damascus on Saturday and pay a visit to Lebanon the same day, the Bush administration announced.
Mr. Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that while in Syria he would press Mr. Assad further on American demands that Syria hand over any Iraqi leaders who had fled there during the war. The United States also wants Syria to end its support of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations that use Syrian territory or Syrian-held territory in Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel.
[A story covered previously spoke of preparations to respond to Hezbollah.]
U.S. Fears Hizbullah Retaliation
Middle East News Online -- April 22
"It has a significant presence of its trained operatives inside the United States waiting for the call to action," Sen. Bob Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said. "In recent years they have been infiltrating into this core in the United States people who have gone through their training camps and have the skills of terrorist activity."
via What Really Happened
Dissonance
Compare the differences in wording from two different entries in the CIA World Factbook. Current rhetoric from the Bush administration has introduced the word "occupation" to the description of the Syrian deployment in Lebanon.
Syria
Since 1976, Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon, ostensibly in a peacekeeping capacity.
Lebanon
Syria maintains about 20,000 troops in Lebanon based mainly in Beirut, North Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley. Syria's troop deployment was legitimized by the Arab League during Lebanon's civil war and in the Ta'if Accord. Damascus justifies its continued military presence in Lebanon by citing Beirut's requests and the failure of the Lebanese Government to implement all of the constitutional reforms in the Ta'if Accord.