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| Syria-Lebanon | |
| U.S. hands Damascus its last warning | |
| 2003-05-05 | |
| EFL Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State, said yesterday he had delivered a final warning to Syria to stop aiding terrorist groups. He said Damascus would have a price to pay if it failed to meet Washington's demands to close the offices of Islamic terrorist organizations in its country. "There are consequences lurking in the background," Mr. Powell said on U.S. television. And a armored division or two lurking over the border He did not specifically threaten military action in his meeting with Bashar Assad, the Syrian President, on Saturday — but he did say George W. Bush, the U.S. President, would "have all his options on the table" should Syria ignore the U.S. edict to change its ways following the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. "There are many ways to confront a nation," he said, adding that diplomatic and economic sanctions and military force are all possible. Final warning, price to pay, consequences, Colin has been hanging out with Rummy. Mr. Powell and other U.S. officials said yesterday that Damascus had already taken action to shut down terrorist offices, but Syrian officials declined to comment on those claims. "You have to ask him what he meant," said Bouthaina Shaaban, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry. "I'm really not entitled to answer. We are more interested in what he said about a comprehensive peace rather than what he said about offices," she said. They're not listening Officials with the groups identified for closure by Mr. Powell were more blunt: "I haven't been informed of any such thing," said Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official in Lebanon. "The Americans know well that our presence is part of the Palestinian presence in Syria and Lebanon and that it's not voluntary. It is forced, because of the occupation of our land and the expulsion of Palestinians [at the creation of Israel]," he said. "It's the Jews fault!" Visitors to the group's Damascus headquarters, as well as those of Islamic Jihad — another terrorist faction Mr. Powell demanded Syria shut — were told senior officials were travelling. Running? On vacation? I heard Paris is nice in the spring. Officials from Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group backed by Syria and Iran, were similarly defiant. "I doubt anyone would answer [the U.S.] call, for as long as there is [Israeli] occupation, no one can even propose disarming the resistance," said Sheik Hassan Izzedine, a senior official of Hezbollah. "We are not worried a bit about the future and we consider ourselves people with a just cause and we reject any threat."
"Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you." Mr. Powell said since Damascus has a new neighbour with a changed power structure in Iraq, the United States "would be watching, and we would measure performance over time to see whether Syria is prepared now to move in a new direction in light of these changed circumstances." Heh, heh, heh | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 Now lemme see if I got this straight: 700k left because they wanted to go to filthy refugee camps to stand aside and watch their arab brothers wipe out the Jewish people occupying their homeland and it was so much fun that other arabs decided to join them. Oh yeah, and no take backs. Except for the ones that stayed. They're enjoying themselves. Unless one of their country cousins blows himself up at the bus station, in which case they join the party of the first part, being members of the vast (which wing is it?) conspiracy that wants to annihilate Israel. Did I miss anything? |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-05-05 23:46:32 |
| #9 A lot of the so-called Palestinians are migrants from other Arab countries. If I recall correctly, Arafat was originally Eqyptian. Let's face it - the whole Palestinian scheme is an Arab project to annihilate Israel. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-05-05 21:37:15 |
| #8 The majority of those that left in '48 left willingly, by that I mean of their own accord. They felt sure that the Arabs would win the war and they would then be allowed to return to claim the spoils. They made a mistake, and thus, should be forced to live with their actions....the ones that remained became Israeli citizens and enjoy rights other Arabs could only imagine in their own countries.... |
| Posted by: Porps 2003-05-05 20:47:11 |
| #7 Syria still a member of the current UN Security Council? Just goes to show how irrelevant that outfit has become. |
| Posted by: john 2003-05-05 20:06:49 |
| #6 Your figures may very well be right, mojo. Where do these people go? Who speaks for them? Arafat? I don't think so. At least not anymore. Does Israel even have a conscience towards those displaced? (and are continuing to) Do we? Or do we write them all off as terrorists? When the bombing stops, will the bulldozers? |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-05-05 17:40:37 |
| #5 It was 700,000 in 1948. The total is now around 4 million, what with the kiddies and all. And THAT'S why Israel won't give in on the Paleo demand for a "Right of Return", they'd be swamped and ousted inside of 50 years. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-05-05 16:47:16 |
| #4 When they quit being a football for other groups' religious terror campaigns and greater nationalistic aspirations, -700,000 displaced paleos have a legitimate problem to be addressed. Hopefully, when the jihadis are squelched and Syria is reorganized, reasonable people will take an unbiased look. |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-05-05 15:32:56 |
| #3 Syria had better remember that it is the US and not the UN that is laying down the warnings. We are talking about low single digits here. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-05 12:35:17 |
| #2 'Course, they probably counted the number of "last warnings" Sammy got... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-05-05 11:57:14 |
| #1 As grampaw usta say when whacking a bull between the ears with a 2-by-4 - "First you have to get it's attention." |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-05-05 10:45:19 |