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By Barry Schweid
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State
Colin Powell, seeking to tone down hawkish
rhetoric toward Syria, said Tuesday the
Bush administration has expressed concerns
about Syrian actions, but has no plan for a
military move against the Damascus gov
ernment.
In an appearance at the Foreign Press
Center, Powell said Iraq was “a unique
case” that required U.S. military action.
He rejected the suggestion that the
administration has a list of countries against
whom it might also retaliate militarily.
“There is no list, there is no war plan,”
he said. Powell acknowledged that the
administration has informed both Syria and
Iran that their actions during the Iraq war
m Syria finds itself under scrutiny
The Bush administration has accused Syria of sponsoring terrorism
and harboring remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime. Syria’s
375-mile border with Iraq, and its territory dispute with Israel over
the Golan Heights, link this Arab nation to the volatile conflicts in
the Middle East.
Area: 71,100 sq. miles
Population 17,155.814
Pop. density: 241 per sq. mi.
Ethnic groups: Arab 90.3%,
Kurds, Armenians and other 9.7%
Principal languages: Arabic
(official), Kurdish, Armenian
Chief religions Sunni Muslim 74%,
other Muslim 16%, Christian 10%
Government: Republic under
military regime since 1963
Industries: Oil, textiles, food
processing, beverages, tobacco,
phosphate mining
Key points in Syria’s history
1920 - State of Syria in the Arab-lsraeli war
formed after the fall of
the Ottoman Empire:
Administered by the
French
April 1946 - Became
independent republic
March 1963 - Socialist
party and military
leaders seized power
June 1967 - Lost the
Golan Heights to Israel
October 1976 to
present-Troops
stationed in Lebanon
1986 - Promotion of
international terrorism
led to the breaking of
diplomatic ties with
Britain and to limited
European sanctions
1990-1991 -
Condemned Iraqi
SOURCES: CIA; The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2003; ESRI
were not helpful. He specifically cited
reports that Syria has given sanctuary to
Iraqis wanted for human rights crimes.
The administration accused Syria of
sponsoring terrorism and harboring rem
nants of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime and
told Damascus to stop it or face diplomatic
or economic sanctions.
“It is time to sign on to a different kind
of Middle East,” national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice said Monday as Syria
took another public pasting from the admin
istration.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said he was “concerned that
recent statements directed at Syria should
not contribute to a wider destabilization in a
region already affected heavily by the war in
Iraq.”
Syrian officials denied having chemical
weapons and said the United States has yet
to prove similar charges
against Iraq. They also
accused Israel of spread
ing misinformation about
Syria.
White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer
rejected those denials,
calling Syria a rogue
nation.
Rice, in a parallel
thrust at Damascus, said
Syria’s support for terror
ism and “harboring the
remnants of the Iraqi
regime” were unaccept
able. But she indicated
the administration was
not contemplating mili
tary action.
Using the same fonnu-
la the administration has
applied to North Korea
and its aggressive nuclear
weapons program. Rice
told the Washington
Institute for Near East
Policy, “The president
has made clear every
problem in the Middle
East cannot be dealt with
the same way.”
Powell signaled
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SAUDI AFLABIA
invasion of Kuwait;
supported Allied forces
during Gulf War
June 10, 2000 - Hafez
al-Assad, president
since 1971, died and
was succeeded by his
son Basher al-Assad
2002-2003-Only Arab
seal on the Security
Council; voiced Iraqi
support
President Bashar Assad that the administra
tion still would like to include Syria in the
Mideast peacemaking it intends to acceler
ate between Israel and the Palestinians.
“As we go down the road to peace, we
want it to be a comprehensive peace, and
ultimately, of course, that would have to
include finding a way to settle the outstand
ing issues with Syria, as well,” Powell said
at a State Department news conference.
Army Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of
the joint chiefs of staff, was asked Tuesday
if the administration has instructed the joint
chiefs to draw up plans to capture former
Iraqi government leaders now believed to be
in Syria and to destroy chemical weapons in
that country.
“The joint chiefs right now are very
much focused on our current mission inside
of Iraq,” Pace said on CBS’s “The Early
Show.” What Syria does is important, he
said. But Pace also said “that’s a policy
issue between the governments.”
Syria seeks to recover the Golan Heights,
a strategic area it lost to Israel in the 1967
Mideast War.
Although it long has been listed by the
State Department as a sponsor of terrorism,
ever since Richard Nixon’s presidency 30
years ago the United States has sought to
interest Syria in peacemaking with Israel.
Itamar Rabinovich, who was Israel’s
chief negotiator with Syria from 1992 to
1995, said its government wanted to please
a radical constituency inside Syria but also
would like to protect Syria’s relationship
with the United States.
In a telephone interview, Rabinovich,
now president of Tel Aviv University, said
that over the years “the United States has
been fascinated with the possibility of get
ting Syria to switch sides and become an
ally of the United States.”
Powell noted Monday that Syria had said
its border with Iraq was closed. However, he
said, “it might mean the main roads are
closed but whether or not others are able to
get across the border is something that I
can’t speak to.”
“But once they get into Syria and start
heading to Damascus I would expect that
Syrian authorities would do everything they
could not to provide these people safe
haven,” he said.
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Group works to salvage
destroyed Iraqi museums
—-— —
By Joseph Coleman
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS — Rallying to salvage
one of the world’s most treasured
troves of antiquities, UNESCO
and the British Museum
announced Tuesday they would
send experts to Iraq to restore
museums and artifacts ransacked
after the U.S.-led invasion.
The looting in Baghdad and
other Iraqi cities in recent days
has dealt a harsh blow to the
Babylonian, Sumerian and
Assyrian collections that chroni
cled some 7,000 years of civiliza
tion in ancient Mesopotamia.
Much anger at the destruction
has been directed at U.S. troops
who stood by and watched it hap
pen. On Tuesday, U.S. officials
acknowledged they were sur
prised by the rampage and said
troops were too occupied by
combat to intervene when they
first arrived in Baghdad.
“I don’t think anyone antici
pated that the riches of Iraq
would be looted by the people of
Iraq,” said U.S. Brig. Gen.
Vincent Brooks at a U.S. Central
Command briefing Tuesday in
Qatar.
The Paris-based U.N.
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization said its
team would study the conditions
of museums and historical sites,
identify ways of restoring them
and find potential donors.
UNESCO said the team would
travel “when conditions pennit.”
About 30 experts were to meet
Thursday for an initial assess
ment at UNESCO headquarters
in Paris.
“The recent experience of
UNESCO ... shows that culture
can play a key role in the consol
idation of the peace process,”
Director-General Koichiro
Matsuura said in a statement.
In London, the British
Museum said it would also send a
team, and it called on the United
Nations to ban the sale of antiqui
ties looted from Iraq.
“Although we still await pre
cise information, it is clear that a
catastrophe has befallen the cul
tural heritage of Iraq,” said
British Museum director Neil
MacGregor.
After the fall of Saddam
Hussein’s government last week,
Iraqi looters stole and smashed
priceless archaeological treasures
from Iraq’s National Museum.
The museum holds items of
incalculable cultural value, per-
haps the most famous being the
tablets with Hammurabi’s Code
— one of mankind’s earliest
codes of law. It could not be
immediately determined whether
the tablets were at the museum
when the war broke out.
Thieves smashed or pried
open row upon row of glass cases
and pilfered — or just destroyed
— their contents. Among the
missing treasures: The four mil-
lennia-old copper head of an
Akkadian king, golden bowls and
colossal statues, ancient manu
scripts and bejeweled lyres.
The museum in the northern
city of Mosul also was pillaged.
NEWS IN BRIEF
d Paid for By
s Crusade for Ch'
Civilian-run elections
continue in Nigeria
: LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - The
party of Nigeria's president did
| well in parliamentary elections,
according to early results
Tuesday, though true voter senti
ment was tough to gauge
I because balloting was marred by
| fraud and violence that killed
1 more than two dozen people.
| President Olusegun Obasanjo's
| backers said the results were a
| good sign heading into
| Saturday's elections, in which he
will seek a third term. Early
results Tuesday showed his
Peoples Democratic Party won
135 of the 360 seats in parlia
ment. Five opposition parties
shared 99 seats and the other
contests were not yet decided.
In the 109-seat Senate, the rul
ing party took 39 seats, com
pared with 27 for the opposition.
There were 3,000 candidates
for all 469 legislative seats.
The vote was tainted by
killings and allegations of voter
intimidation and fraud. It was
the first civilian-run ballot in 20
years in Africa's most populous
nation.
PLAT I N U M
‘Never ceases to amizes her.
Almy/s exceed her
greatest expectations. ”
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