Posted on 04/30/2008 7:48:29 PM PDT by freerepublic_or_die
When Yasser Arafat first addressed the U.N. General Assembly in November 1974, he told the world body he came bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand," stated the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, at that time still considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.
Today, the odds have increased. The gun has been replaced by nuclear warheads.
Despite a mysterious air raid by the Israeli air force last Sept. 6 on what it said was a nuclear processing facility in the Syrian desert, Damascus appears to be extending an olive branch to Israel, while suspected to be pursuing plans to acquire nuclear weapons.
However, the Bush administration does not seem to believe Syria is earnest in its motives and accuses the government of President Bashar Assad of continuing to support terrorism and of gross interference in internal Lebanese affairs. Furthermore, Washington fears that camouflaged behind those olive branches being extended by Damascus are the regime's real intentions, among them failed efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal.
Syria's ambassador to the United States denied all accusations lobbed by Washington at Damascus, the latest being that Syria was looking to North Korean technical know-how to become the first nuclear-armed Arab country. Saddam Hussein had attempted as far back as the mid-1970s to equip Iraq with a nuclear arsenal, but his dream was shattered when Israeli warplanes destroyed the Osirak facility in 1981.
The Syrian envoy to Washington said his country was well aware of what happens to a country that attempts to acquire nuclear technology. Imad Mustapha said Syria had no intentions of acquiring nuclear technology, even for peaceful purposes.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
western imperialism and colloquialism
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