Coalition sends out the warning signals to Assad’s Syria

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad, facing US accusations that Syria might have chemical weapons and be harbouring fugitive Iraqi officials, met British Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien yesterday.

“I was able to brief the president on coalition proposals now that Saddam Hussein’s regime has gone...an interim Iraqi authority will be set up as soon as possible, which will then enable the Iraqis to frame a new constitution and hold elections,” O’Brien said in a statement after the meeting.

“Saddam Hussein is finished. The coalition will go home as soon as the Iraqi people have an elected government,” he added.