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| Middle East |
| Syria rejects Sharon accusations |
| 2002-12-26 |
| The Syrian Foreign Ministry Wednesday dismissed Israeli charges that Iraq had transferred its chemical and biological weapons to Syria. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "allegations" were "baseless and ... aimed at diverting attention from the nuclear, chemical and biological arsenal in the possession of Israel." Dismissing the claim as "ridiculous," the spokesman said Syria was a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And we know how everyone respects treaties In an interview with Channel 2 TV Tuesday, Sharon said, "We have such information. We believe -- and have not yet finally verified -- that chemical biological weapons (Saddam Hussein) wanted to hide, were indeed transferred to Syria." Sharon gave no further details, but added that Israel is now "acting to verify these reports." Syria and Iraq restored ties in 1997 when their common border, which was closed in the early 1980s, was reopened. The move helped consolidate economic ties and secured some $2 billion a year for Syria as part of the U.N. oil-for-food program with Iraq. But political ties remain low-level. Western diplomats believe that Syria, which rejects striking and partitioning Iraq, does not wish to develop its political ties with Baghdad for lack of confidence in Saddam Hussein whom it has accused of trying to destabilize the Syrian regime in the early 1980s. They don't like or trust Saddam, but they are trying to keep their options open. If Saddam has asked them to hold chemical or bio weapons for him, they might just do it. If he should win, they stay on his good side. When he goes down, they have a secert stash of WMD. If we show them evidence that we know they have them, they claim they were holding them to keep Saddam from using them. They may, repeat, may have already made such a deal in secert with the U.S. which Israel is unaware of. I don't think that Syria has a death wish and would use these weapons on Israel. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Saddam, what bio weapons? I don't remember you giving us any WMD to store while the Americans were looking around. You gave your F-14s to Iran last Gulf war, perhaps you loaned them your WMD as well? |
| Posted by: Little Assad 2002-12-26 18:14:05 |