Posted on 01/30/2004 6:36:04 AM PST by Prodigal Son
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria's president has pledged on Thursday to return Iraqi funds held in Syria after both countries agree on the amount -- put at $3 billion (2.08 billion pounds) by Baghdad.
"President Bashar al-Assad assured us that the Iraqi funds in Syria are safe and that he was willing to hand them over to Iraqi authorities," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council, told a news conference in Damascus after meeting Assad on Thursday.
Iraqi officials have said the funds in Syrian state-run banks amount to $3 billion, but their Syrian counterparts say the amount is in hundreds of millions of dollars and that a process is underway to deduct funds owed to Syrian firms before the balance is returned.
Diplomats say the money was deposited in Syrian banks by Iraq's former government.
Rubaie said Assad told him that he did not wish to hand over the funds to the U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq. "This is a very legitimate request (by Assad)," he said.
He said he would ask the Council to send officials to Damascus to discuss the technicalities of the return.
Rubaie and Council colleague Yonadam Kanna said they had also discussed security issues with Assad, as well as ways of stimulating economic and other cooperation between the two Arab neighbours.
The United States has repeatedly accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent Islamist militants slipping into Iraq across the long desert border between them, to attack occupying forces in the country.
"Fingers are not pointed at Syria -- Syria the state and the government -- for involvement in any terrorist operations in Iraq...but Syrian borders like those of other neighbours of Iraq can be used to penetrate to Iraq for sabotage and terror operations," Rubaie said.
"Borders cannot be physically sealed...the issues require a political and security solution," he said. The Council wants "to sign a deal or a memorandum of understanding" on security cooperation, he added.
Last month another member of the Council, Abdul Azizi al-Hakim, said Damascus had offered to help to improve security in Iraq by providing intelligence, tightening borders and extraditing suspects involved in crime in Iraq.
Syria does not officially recognise the Governing Council, but has said it is willing to cooperate with the body until Iraqis elect a legitimate government.
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