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U.S. Charges Against Syria Aim to Cover Up Israeli "Crimes"
BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. charges that Syria has been allegedly producing biological weapons are tactics intended to cover up Israel's "crimes" against the Palestinians and other Arabs, Iraq announced Friday.
"It is clear that U.S. allegations against Syria, especially in the current circumstances [in the occupied Palestinians territories], aim to camouflage the crimes committed by the Zionist entity," said Iraqi Baath party's daily, Ath-Thawra, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The American accusations also aim to show that Arabs are the cause of all danger in the world and [are] terrorists ... who produce weapons of mass destruction and threaten the security and stability" of the United States, it said.
U.S. accusations against Damascus have been seen by many as directly linked to Washington's refusal to adopt an international draft protocol on biological weapons controls.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who claimed that the United States - the most powerful nuclear power in the world - would be "naive" to discount the alleged threat posed to U.S. security by biological, chemical and nuclear weapons by so-called rogue states, supported U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's accusations.
Rumsfeld, in Canberra for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial (Ausmin) summit opened by Prime Minister John Howard on Monday, claimed that U.S. military intelligence had identified "a non-trivial" number of countries that were engaged in what he termed "weaponizing with respect to biological warfare".
He made the comments in defense of Washington's decision, strongly opposed by Australia, not to adopt an international draft protocol on biological weapons controls.
The U.S. position on biological weapons emerged Monday as the most contentious issue in the first top-level meeting of the two allies since George W. Bush took office in January.
Rumsfeld claimed Syria, Iran and Iraq are pursuing the development of biological weapons in breach of their commitments to the protocol, which aims to verify implementation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, AFP reported.
Washington argues that the potential for so-called "rogue states" to mount nuclear and biological weapon attacks on the U.S. and its allies - mainly Israel - is its main reason for pushing ahead with plans to develop a much controversial missile defense shield.
Powell claimed it would be prudent for the U.S. to develop a missile defense system targeted against nations which were allegedly attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction - "not against Soviet or Russian retaliatory forces or Chinese retaliatory forces," AFP reported.
The proposal has attracted sharp criticism from many traditional U.S. allies. But along with Russia and China, Australia has voiced its support for deployment of the anti-missile shield.
Powell said a revision of the three-decade old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the U.S. vehemently refuses to sign, was now necessary to create a "new strategic framework that reduces offensive weapons but gives us the ability to develop a limited defense that we think would be strategically stabilizing."
Australia is widely perceived as Washington's staunchest ally in the region, backing both Bush's opposition to international moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and the development of the missile defense shield.
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