Stop accusing Syria, envoy tells US

Syria’s ambassador to the US said today that Iraq may be spiralling toward a civil war “that will have a domino effect on the whole region” – and he urged the Bush administration to stop accusing his country of harbouring infiltrators.

In an Associated Press interview, Ambassador Imad Moustapha said in Washington: “We are really not allowing people to infiltrate” into Iraq. He invited the US to help secure the border.

He said his government had taken unprecedented steps to seal its border with Iraq, and that even the US had problems guarding its border with Mexico.

Moustapha said his government “has been very sure to not allow anyone to act from inside Syria to create any violence in Iraq”.

He said he knew that if Syria helped insurgents, “we will be put in direct confrontation with the US, which I don’t believe any country wants to be”.

Outsiders were responsible for about 5% of the anti-US attacks in Iraq, he said.

“But there are politicians in the US who find it politically useful to say the balance is in the hands of outsiders, and that Syria and Iran are allowing them to do this job.

“If you believe you can help us improve security on our borders, we are willing to enhance the quality of co-operation,” he said.

“But it takes two to tango, and we cannot do this by ourselves while you continue to bash Syria through the media.”

On another touchy front, the Syrian envoy said the 10,000 Syrian troops still in Lebanon would be withdrawn across the border once Lebanon’s military and security leaders were ready to replace them.

“It will be as soon as possible, but not to create chaos,” Moustapha said at Syria’s embassy in Washington. “This is the only consideration.”

Syria has pulled out about 4,000 of the 14,000 troops who were in Lebanon a month ago when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut. This accelerated US, French and UN demands for a complete and immediate withdrawal of the troops initially sent to Lebanon 29 years ago to help end a civil war.

Clearly sensitive to the rising demands, Moustapha said, ”We realise that our presence there has become controversial.” He said his government wants to see Hariri’s assassination solved.

The ambassador did not respond directly, however, when asked if all Syrian troops would be gone before Lebanon holds elections in May.

Moustapha went on to defend the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as a grass-roots political movement and invited the Bush administration to help it evolve into a “purely political movement”.

With US help, he said, Hezbollah’s armed wing could be integrated into the Lebanese army “and the whole issue will be resolved constructively, for the benefit of Lebanon and the long-term strategic interests of the United States,” he said.

The State Department has for years branded Hezbollah a terror group. But President Bush said today after a White House meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan: “I would hope that Hezbollah would prove that they are not by laying down arms and not threatening peace.”