 |
|
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad (R) welcomes his Egyptian counterpart
Hosni Mubarak in Damascus, April 20
|
DAMASCUS,
April 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak made an unannounced visit to Damascus Sunday, April 20,
to discuss U.S. threats of sanctions against the Syrian regime with
its leader Bashar al-Assad.
The
talks, which came just three days after a visit to Cairo by Syrian
Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara, focused on the American threats
against Syria, the official SANA news agency said without elaborating.
The
two leaders had one-on-one talks following discussions accompanied by
aides, SANA said.
The
Syrian government newspaper Tishrin warned Sunday that
"dangerous developments are happening in the Arab world after the
occupation of Iraq" by US and British forces, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) said.
"Some
in the U.S. administration consider the occupation of Iraq as a
stepping stone towards remodeling the region."
In
the past week, senior U.S. officials threatened Syria and accused
Damascus of state terrorism and of sheltering fugitive leaders of the
ousted regime in neighboring Iraq as well as the banned
weapons Washington insists it retained.
Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Syria of carrying out chemical
weapons tests of its own early last year, while Secretary of State
Colin Powell threatened diplomatic or economic sanctions to force the
regime to heel.
But
in an interview with Egyptian television Sunday, the Syrian foreign
minister again dismissed the U.S. charges.
"Everyone
knows that these accusations are baseless -- and even supposing the
Arabs did have weapons of mass destruction, they would only represent
a tenth of those which Israel has," said Shara.
On
Wednesday, Syria, the only Arab member of the UN Security Council,
introduced a draft resolution
requiring all Middle East states to get rid of weapons of mass
destruction, in a clear attempt to shift the focus to Israel's large
undeclared arsenal.
In
his talks with Mubarak in Cairo Thursday, April 17, Shara offered
assurances that his country did not possess chemical weapons but
refused to allow any outside inspection of Syria's military
capabilities.
Israel
still occupies the strategic Golan Heights which it captured from
Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, making Damascus hypersensitive
about security issues.
Syria
also insists it is full justified in providing bases and other
assistance to the Palestinian resistance groups resisting Israeli
occupation which Washington accuses of terrorism.
