This explains it all.
Posted on 04/02/2003 11:56:24 AM PST by kattracks
Syria's Assad criticises U.S. "lack of foresight"
DAMASCUS, April 2 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the United States of dangerous lack of foresight after a top U.S. official warned Damascus not to back Iraq.
"The problem is that officials in the United States are used to imposing their opinions on others," Assad said in an interview with Austria's Der Standard newspaper, reported in Arabic by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Wednesday.
"An official making a threat is not what is dangerous. What is dangerous is the lack of foresight by that official," he said without specifying an official by name.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Damascus on Sunday it was facing a critical choice and urged it to abandon its support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Assad, a stern opponent of the war against his fellow Arab neighbour, warned that any miscalculation by Washington would put the whole world in jeopardy and voiced discomfort with U.S. policies.
"If a small country made a mistake it might affect its neighbours, but if a superpower committed a mistake it would threaten the whole world.
"The disquieting reality that we see is the reality of the world and that of the world's greatest country," he said.
Syria has rejected U.S. charges that military supplies were being transported to Iraq from its territory and said the U.S. accusations were an attempt by Washington to turn attention away from its "crimes" against Iraqi civilians.
Assad described his country's relations with the United States as that of "contradictions" noting that although the two countries did not agree on war against Iraq, they were cooperating in the war against "terrorism."
"There is no generalisation in the relations with the United States," he said. "As far as we are concerned, we always try to look for points of agreement and not the opposite."
Assad said the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was "not at all interested" in pushing forward the Arab-Israeli peace process, nor was Israel.
"Israel is not ready and the United States does not have the vision and interest in the peace process, therefore we do not see hope in peace soon," he said.
Assad reiterated that Damascus wants a peace that is based on the implementation of United Nations resolutions that require Israel to give back Arab territories it occupied and secure the return of Palestinian refugees.
04/02/03 14:48 ET
This explains it all.
You wanna be the designated Bathist to take Saddam's place?
So9
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