[Peace-discuss] set up for invasion

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

U.S. Adviser Warns Syria on Iraqi WMD
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 8:18 p.m. ET

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- The United States would be forced to act if it 
discovered that Damascus allowed Iraq to hide weapons of mass destruction in 
Syria during the war, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an 
interview published Wednesday.

Rice said she was sure Iraqi weapons of mass destruction -- the main reason 
cited by the United States for invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein -- 
would turn up eventually.

But she said it was possible some had been removed from Iraq before the 
fighting concluded last month.

``We have assurances from the Syrians that nothing crossed their borders. 
Time will tell,'' Rice said in the interviews given Tuesday in Washington to 
El Pais and three other Spanish dailies.

But if that assurance turned out to be false, it would create a very serious 
situation and the international community would be forced to act, Rice said, 
according to El Pais.

Pressed about whether she meant another war, Rice simply repeated that the 
international community would be forced to act.

During the war in Iraq the United States accused Syria of granting haven to 
fleeing officials of Saddam's regime and developing its own weapons of mass 
destruction. The allegations triggered fears of another U.S.-led conflict 
even before the smoke cleared in Iraq.

The Syrian ambassador to Spain, Mohsen Bilal, denied the Syria had provided a 
haven to Iraqi officials or possessed weapons of mass destruction.

``We have no fear and no secrets,'' Bilal told journalists Wednesday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Damascus Saturday with Syrian 
President Bashar Assad to discuss weapons of mass destruction and U.S. plans 
for the Middle East in the aftermath of the war in Iraq.

During the meeting, Powell said he discussed the offices radical Palestinian 
groups - labeled terrorist organizations by the United States -- run in the 
Syrian capital.

In Damascus, the leader of a radical Palestinian group confirmed Wednesday he 
is ready to shut offices in there to ease U.S. pressure on Syria but said 
Syrian officials had made no such demand.

Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 
General Command, however, hinted that the Syrians might be ready to make a 
request soon.

The group ``is ready to meet the Syrian demands if such demands are useful 
for Syrian policy,'' Jibril told reporters in Damascus.

Powell said on Sunday that the Bush administration and Congress are 
monitoring Syria's moves.

``There are no illusions in his (Assad's) mind as to what we are looking for 
from Syria,'' Powell told NBC's ``Meet the Press.''

``There was, as we put it in diplomatic terms, a candid exchange of views, 
but it is not promises that we are interested in, or assurances, but it is 
action. We will see what happens in the days, weeks, months ahead.''

A key question involving Iraq, Powell said, is whether Syria will keep its 
eastern border closed, and track down and surrender any Iraqi suspects who 
might cross it to escape prosecution.

Bilal, the Syrian envoy, said the ``road map'' to Middle East peace should go 
beyond the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel. The plan was put 
forward by the United Nations, the United States, European Union and Russia.

Lasting peace depends on a ``total retreat'' by Israel from the territories 
it seized in the 1967 war, Bilal said, noting that Israel captured the Golan 
Heights from Syria in that war.

Bilal said Assad told Powell that for Syria to support the road map, the 
return of the Golan Heights would have to be added to the plan.

Powell is expected to travel to Israel and several other Middle East 
countries next weekend in an attempt to sell the ``road map,'' which aims to 
establish a Palestinian state by 2005.