Posted on 04/15/2003 11:41:10 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON The United States said Monday that diplomatic and economic sanctions - or unspecified other measures - could be used to pressure Syria to drop weapons programs or expel Iraqi leaders seeking refuge from American invasion forces.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, called Syria a "terrorist state" and a "rogue nation, " words applied earlier to Iraq, as well as to Iran and North Korea.
But with the region still shaken by the Iraq war, Russia, the European Union and Arab countries implored Washington to show "greater restraint" regarding Syria. Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said that with the region "convulsed," it was time "to see if we can cool off and cool down the situation."
Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "with respect to Syria, of course we will examine possible measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature." He did not elaborate.
At the White House, Fleischer used more muscular language, in rejecting Syrian denials that it had chemical weapons, had aided former Iraqi leaders or permitted weapons and fighters to enter Iraq.
Without making any threats, Fleischer would not rule out force. He said that "we apply different levers in different places" and added, "I think Syria understands our message."
But the closest U.S. war ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, saw fit to issue a stronger denial. "There are no plans whatever to invade Syria," he told Parliament.
Amid fears in the Arab world that the United States might be thinking of sending its vast force in the region against Syria, the European Union urged Washington to lower its tone.
There was a sharp exchange on another front, however. A senior Israeli official castigated the Syrian foreign minister for comments about Israel and warned that Damascus should not be "playing with fire." Foreign Minister Farouk Shara warned Sunday that Israel would suffer if the United States attacked Syria.
On Monday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that Israel would brook no threat from Damascus.
While the United States has denied any plans to turn its military might against Syria, its warnings to Damascus have rattled foreign officials in the region and beyond, and, traders said, caused a decline in the value of the dollar Monday.
There were suggestions that the United States intended to use the military example it set in Iraq to exert a "demonstration effect" on Damascus, pressing it to alter its behavior. In fact, Powell said Monday that not just Syria but "all the nations in the region" should review their practices, a warning presumably intended to include Iran.
But there were fears that these warnings could have an inflammatory effect.
British officials urged Syria to heed U.S. warnings, but were more cautious in their allegations. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in Kuwait on a regional tour dealing with Iraqi reconstruction, said that there had been "much evidence of considerable cooperation" between Syria and the former government of Saddam Hussein.
But he said that he was not certain that Damascus had weapons of mass destruction. Nor, he said, were there "plans for Syria to be next on the list" after Iraq.
But at the White House, Fleischer repeated demands by President George W. Bush that Damascus expel fleeing Iraqi leaders, halt any flow of arms or fighters into Iraq and abandon any chemical arms. "They do, indeed, harbor terrorists," Fleischer said.
Syria has long been on the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism, he noted, adding, "Rogue nations need to clean up their act." He cited a CIA report to Congress last year that, he added, says that Syria possesses a stock of the nerve agent sarin.
In Damascus, Buthaina Shaaban, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told Reuters that "the only chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in the region are in Israel, which is threatening its neighbors and occupying their land." Israel is widely understood to have nuclear weapons, but has not confirmed as much.
Another Syrian official said that it would accept "the most rigid inspection regime" to prove it had no unconventional weapons.
But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters outside the Pentagon on Monday, said, "We have seen a chemical weapons test in Syria over the past 12, 15 months." He did not say how that intelligence was obtained.
Syria joined the U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait. But U.S. officials say that a substantial illegal trade in oil and equipment with potential military uses -- as much as $6 million a day -- has arisen between Syria and Iraq. Damascus strongly opposes the current war in Iraq.
In Luxembourg, where EU foreign ministers were holding their first meeting since the fall of Baghdad, countries that had firmly opposed the war spoke out warily against a new U.S. confrontation with Syria.
"We should concentrate to win the peace and not to come into another confrontation," said Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany. His French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, urged "restraint and moderation."
A top Russian official also called for "greater restraint."
"Harsh statements from Washington in relation to Damascus can only complicate the already difficult situation in the Middle East," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told the Itar-Tass news agency.
And in Cairo, Osama Baz, a presidential adviser, said that the U.S. accusations would raise fear and tension in the Arab world about American intentions.
"There is a big difference between Syria and Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein," he said, Reuters reported. "I think America's attempt to target one Arab state after another will harm America's image."
Cough up ALL of Iraq's WMD - AND all of its exiled cabal members - NOW. Or Syria gets turned into a Mideast branch office of Pittsburgh Plate Glass.
Michael
Yes and Chavez in Venuz...
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