War (of Words) with Syria
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Tuesday, Apr 15, 2003
[Rumsfeld confirms pipeline story. Review of recent comments from the US, Syria, Israel, Spain, UK, Hezbollah, UN.]
BBC -- April 15
US 'blocks' Syria pipeline
Ties between the US and Syria have long been strained
The US says it has blocked a pipeline used to pump Iraqi oil to Syria, in volume that allegedly violated UN sanctions.
There were fresh rumours last week that Syria had been importing large amounts of Iraqi oil in contravention of sanctions on Iraq, when Syrian crude oil deliveries fell sharply after a pipeline was thought to have been bombed.
The disclosure can only add to increasingly strained relations between the US and Syria, which on Tuesday rebuffed recent US allegations that it is developing chemical weapons.
Syria said such claims were designed to further the interests of Israel.
Arab countries, Russia and the European Union have also condemned the US for making threats against Syria over the war in Iraq.
But on Tuesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer kept up the pressure, saying "the focus is on Syria because Syria is the nation that is harbouring Iraqis" - a reference to the US claim that some of Saddam Hussein's allies may have fled to the country.
[A review of recent US and Israeli rhetoric directed towards Syria.]
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty -- April 15
U.S./Syria: What's Behind Washington's War Of Words?
By Jeffrey Donovan
"The president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff have all issued threats and warnings to Syria over the last week. This is unheard-of with respect to U.S.-Syrian relations. Never before have those high-level officials made those kinds of statements."
Other Syria Watching Bloggers
Sam Rosenfeld
Calpundit
[Another article on Powell's Tuesday comments. Rice's and Annan's comments from Monday are quoted below.]
AP via The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA -- April 15
Powell Tones Down Rhetoric Toward Syria
By BARRY SCHWEID
"It is time to sign on to a different kind of Middle East," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday as Syria took another public pasting from the administration.
Rice, in a parallel thrust at Damascus, said Syria's support for terrorism and "harboring the remnants of the Iraqi regime" were unacceptable. But she indicated the administration was not contemplating military action.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "concerned that recent statements directed at Syria should not contribute to a wider destabilization in a region already affected heavily by the war in Iraq."
[New comments from Powell today. "Imposing democratic values" is an interesting oxymoron.]
Sky News -- April 15
POWELL: CONCERNS
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has said the US has no war plan to attack either Syria or Iran.
"We have concerns about Syria," he said. "We have let Syria know of our concerns. We also have concerns about some of the policies of Iran.
"We have made the Iranians fully aware of our concerns," Mr Powell said.
"But there is no list, there is no war plan right now to go attack someone else either for the purpose of overthrowing their leadership or for the purpose of imposing democratic values," Powell said.
[This Guardian exclusive is causing a buzz today.]
The Guardian -- April 15
Bush vetoes Syria war plan
Julian Borger in Washington, Michael White, Ewen MacAskill in Kuwait City and Nicholas Watt
The White House has privately ruled out suggestions that the US should go to war against Syria following its military success in Iraq, and has blocked preliminary planning for such a campaign in the Pentagon, the Guardian learned yesterday.
In the past few weeks, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, ordered contingency plans for a war on Syria to be reviewed following the fall of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, his undersecretary for policy, Doug Feith, and William Luti, the head of the Pentagon's office of special plans, were asked to put together a briefing paper on the case for war against Syria, outlining its role in supplying weapons to Saddam Hussein, its links with Middle East terrorist groups and its allegedly advanced chemical weapons programme. Mr Feith and Mr Luti were both instrumental in persuading the White House to go to war in Iraq.
Mr Feith and other conservatives now playing important roles in the Bush administration, advised the Israeli government in 1996 that it could "shape its strategic environment... by weakening, containing and even rolling back Syria".
However, President George Bush, who faces re-election next year with two perilous nation-building projects, in Afghanistan and Iraq, on his hands, is said to have cut off discussion among his advisers about the possibility of taking the "war on terror" to Syria.
[Persistent questioning and extensive comments by Fleischer on Syria in today's briefing. The quotation below is just a small sampling. Repeated statements by Fleischer about WMD, terrorists and Iraqi leaders in Syria. The Golan Heights is not part of Israel/Palestine roadmap.]
White House Press Briefing -- April 14
whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/
Q Have you gotten any feedback yet from Syria?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think that Syria has received the message. Keep in mind, the United States does have diplomatic relations with Syria. We have an ambassador in Damascus. Syria has received the message not only from the ambassador, but from other officials in the government.
And I think it's important for Syria to recognize that not only is it important for -- the wise way to conduct diplomacy, but also as a way of sending a message to the people of a newly-liberated Iraq, the people of Kuwait, others in the region who do not want to see Syria take in or harbor those who have been engaged in decades-long practice of tyranny, of brutality and of persecution against the Iraqi people. Why would Syria want to harbor those people? It's an important question, and we look forward to Syria's response to it.
Q In recent days, many announcements by senior officials about Syria's weapons of mass destruction have led people in other parts of the world to believe that Syria is probably next on the United States target list. And I'm wondering if you want to disabuse us of that notion?
MR. FLEISCHER: Thank you. Let me make two points. What's next on the United States target list is Iraq. What is next is exactly what we have described, which is completing the military mission in Iraq, because there still are dangerous places and there still is risk of pockets of fighting and resistance. What's next is the reconstruction of Iraq, working with Iraqis, working with the international community, working with the coalition to rebuild Iraq. If you want to know in the President's mind what is next, that is what is next.
In terms of Syria and chemical weapons, indeed, the President was asked a direct question yesterday: does Syria have weapons of mass destruction? And, indeed, as the President's habit, he answered the direct question. Syria does have chemical weapons according to a report that was just released by the CIA to the Congress. It's a public document and an authoritative one. I brought it to your attention earlier today.
So when the President is asked a direct question, he answers it. [ed. note: I'm biting my tongue here.]
[More Syrian reaction. Reaction from Egypt, Germany and Turkey.]
Dar Al-Hayat -- April 14
Syria Denies U.S. Accusations
Syria on Monday rejected U.S. accusations that it had chemical weapons and was sheltering former Iraqi leaders.
The increased U.S. pressure on Syria now that the Iraqi regime is overthrown prompted a warning from Europe. "We need to concentrate on winning the peace, and not on getting into a new confrontation," German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said as he arrived at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
It also prompted Syria to seek support from other countries. Syrian President Bashar Assad met with a junior British envoy Monday on the future of the region post-Saddam Hussein, as well as Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Sudanese President Omar el-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 can we avoid the dangers ahead," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said in Cairo following talks Monday between Mubarak and visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan.
[Reaction to Sunday's US comments on Syria.]
Radio Free Europe -- April 14
U.S.: Washington Piles Pressure On Syria, Sparking French, Arab Reaction
By Jeffrey Donovan
Their remarks drew a quick reply from France, whose foreign minister is on a swing through the Middle East. Dominique de Villepin said that now is not the time to be pressuring Syria and that the world community should focus instead on rebuilding Iraq and reviving Middle East peace efforts.
Asked about Villepin's remarks, Rumsfeld bristled, accusing Paris of ignoring reality and living a lie. He added: "The comment that you cited suggests that the truth doesn't have any value, and the truth does have value. And the fact of the matter is that Syria has been unhelpful, and pretending that that is not the case is to deny the truth, and I don't think you can live a lie."
France's call was joined by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa, who told reporters in Cairo that U.S. threats against Syria would only further inflame the situation in the Middle East.
[More from Rumsfeld. Review of Fleischer's comments]
Al Bawaba -- April 14
US directs additional hostile rhetoric at Syria: Rumsfeld speaks about chemical arms tests
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday accused Syria of carrying out tests involving chemical weapons over the past 12 to 15 months and allowing some Iraqis to flee into Syrian territory.
Further increasing U.S. pressure on Iraq's neighbor, Rumsfeld said the United States has "intelligence that indicates that some Iraqi people have been allowed into Syria, in some cases to stay and some cases to transit."
"I would say that we have seen chemical weapons tests in Syria over the past 12, 15 months," he said. "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 made his comments during a news briefing outside the Pentagon after meeting with visiting Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah.