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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Khalilzhad sez Syria assists in training terrorists |
| 2005-09-13 |
| The United States ambassador to Iraq lashed out at Syria on Monday, saying that its government continued to allow terrorists to operate training camps within Syria that have sent hundreds of insurgents into Iraq. "Our patience is running out," said the ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. While other administration officials made similar accusations early this year, the focus of American attention to Syria in recent months has been its occupation of Lebanon. Over the summer, Syria said that it had cracked down on insurgents operating within its territory. But Mr. Khalilzad, in remarks to reporters in Washington, made it clear that the United States believed that Syria was providing assistance to insurgents operating in Iraq and that such help might have increased. Government-controlled Syrian newspapers "glorify the terrorists as resistance fighters," he said. Syrian authorities "allow youngsters misguided by Al Qaeda - from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, from North Africa - to fly into Damascus International Airport," attend training camps and then cross into Iraq, he contended. Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, called Mr. Khalilzad's allegations "100 percent rubbish," and said Syria had repeatedly invited American and Iraqi officials to discuss the problem and find solutions. But, he added, neither country had responded. "We have more troops on our border with Iraq than we have ever had before" as well as "sandbags, barbed wire," Mr. Moustapha said. "We understand the stakes are high." The Americans, Ambassador Moustapha said, "just continue talking as if they're talking to a TV camera." For all of Mr. Khalilzad's assertions and warnings, senior American officials said the government did not have any plans for new actions against Syria, except to "continue trying to isolate it, as we have been," as one senior State Department official put it. Another government official said Bush administration policy was to "keep the heat on Syria, keep the criticism up." He said the administration had picked up indications that the United Nations investigation of the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February might implicate senior Syrian government leaders. The chief United Nations investigator, Detlev Mehlis, arrived in Damascus on Monday to question senior Syrian officials. If those indications prove true, the official added, the administration was poised to pounce on Syria and perhaps offer a new, critical resolution to the United Nations Security Council. Mr. Khalilzad's statements, he added, fell into the general policy of "focusing more attention on Syria's negative activities." Mr. Khalilzad said insurgents were traveling to Damascus as well as to Latakia, a seaport, and Aleppo, near the border with Turkey. From these and other locations, "people are coming out from Syria to Iraq to kill Iraqis," he said. "Syria has to decide what price it's willing to pay in making Iraq's success difficult," he added. In addition to his remarks on Syria, Mr. Khalilzad offered an unusual plea for continued American support for Iraq, even as numerous recent public opinion polls have indicated that public support was waning, particularly after Hurricane Katrina. "The American public needs to know that what's involved here is huge, as what we did with the Soviet Union was huge," he said. "Iraq is the centerpiece of the defining challenge of our time." Mr. Khalilzad explained that during his confirmation hearings last summer, he "got a sense" of "a crisis of confidence, perhaps, in what we're doing in Iraq." Now, following Hurricane Katrina, he added, "I can understand" that "there will be a focus, as there should be, on dealing with that crisis." Still, he spent several minutes trying to explain why Americans should care about Iraq. "Iraq is part of this region that we call a vital part of the world" that is "producing most of the security problems of this era," he said. "And the way to deal with it is to get Iraq right, first." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 The Americans, Ambassador Moustapha said, "just continue talking as if they're talking to a TV camera." Sorry, that would be the Senate... |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-09-13 09:00 |