Burns said the Syrians saved American lives

WASHINGTON, June 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Despite the fact that Syria is on the list of countries deemed to be sponsoring terrorism, a senior U.S. State Department official admitted Tuesday, June 18, 2002, that Syria has provided the United States with information on Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, which saved American lives.

“It is true that the cooperation the Syrians have provided, in their own self-interest, on Al-Qaeda, has saved American lives,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns said at a congressional hearing.

Burns, who was testifying before a House subcommittee on the Middle East, gave no details on the information turned over by the Syrians nor did he say when it was passed on, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The comments coincided with German television reports that a German citizen of Syrian origin wanted for allegedly helping plan the September 11 attacks on the United States was in a prison in Syria.

Mohammed Zammar, 41, has been held in a Syrian prison for months, German public television network ZDF reported, quoting German security sources.

Zammar is believed to have recruited Mohammed Atta, the alleged mastermind behind the group of 19 men who carried out the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

He was questioned by German police after last year’s attacks, but was soon released. Burns, however, made no mention of the Zammar case.

U.S. daily newspaper, the Washington Post, reported that the debriefing of Zammar “is an extraordinary example of the way September 11 has redefined U.S. engagement with regimes it once vilified.”

Burns said the relationship between Washington and Syria, which is on the U.S. list of countries deemed to be sponsoring terrorism, “is a very complicated one.

“We have some very serious problems with Syria... We have also made it clear that our agenda on terrorism extends well beyond Al-Qaeda,” he added.

“It includes groups like Hezbollah, which have been responsible for killing of Americans in the past, which have threatened American interests. That’s a choice that Syria is going to have to make.”

Hezbollah, the Islamic resistance movement in Lebanon, freed the south of Lebanon from Israeli occupation in May 2000. The movement is unofficially supported by Arab countries including Syria.

Syria’s support to the resistance movements in Palestine have also been a reason behind putting Syria in the list that includes the states the U.S. considers sponsoring terrorism.

Syria has accepted key Palestinian resistance figures into its borders, such as Khaled Mishaal, one of the leaders of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, a group the U.S. considers as “terrorist” for its attacks against the Israeli occupation.

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