18-04-2003, 19:17
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Citaat:
Gatara schreef op 18-04-2003 @ 15:37:
Syria refuses to allow weapons inspections
CAIRO (Agencies): Syria will allow no inspections of its military arsenal or its territory to refute US accusations that it possesses weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara said here Thursday. Syrian FM holds talks with Mubarak Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara opened talks here Thursday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak expected to focus on the mounting US accusations against Damascus. Shara, on arrival in Cairo earlier the same day, told reporters he was carrying a message from President Bashar al-Assad, but gave no details. He was also to meet Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa to discuss “the threats against Syria,” the situation in Iraq, and Syria’s proposal for a UN resolution on mass destruction arms, according to Mussa. On Wednesday, Syria introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would make the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction. The United States has since last week repeatedly accused Syria of carrying out banned weapons programmes and of harboring officials of the fallen regime in Iraq. Damascus has denied all the charges. “The most eloquent answer to this is that Syria is prepared to turn the Middle East into a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction ... under UN supervision and to sign any treaty accordingly,” Shara said Wednesday. Syria said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell would be welcome to visit the country despite the recent raft of accusations levelled by Washington at Damascus. A State Department official in Washington said Wednesday that Powell may travel to Syria to defuse the tension between them. “We have not been officially notified of his visit, but he will be welcome,” said Bussaina Shaaban, director of the foreign ministry’s information department. Damascus has come under pressure in recent weeks from Washington, which has accused it of having chemical weapons and giving refuge to members of the ousted Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. The United States has also accused Syria of sending Arab “volunteers” to fight against American and British coalition forces in Iraq.On Monday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Syria had conducted a chemical weapons test during the last 12 to 15 months, while Powell raised the possibility of diplomatic and economic sanctions being imposed. Meanwhile, the chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq urged the victorious U.S.-led coalition to allow his team back into the country to look for weapons of mass destruction, saying that would increase the credibility of any discoveries, a magazine reported Thursday. Hans Blix, who was in charge of searches for chemical and biological weapons, also challenged Bush’s administration to present proof of its allegation that Syria has chemical weapons. ``Whoever claims this should, in the interests of credibility, very quickly present the relevant proof,’’ Blix said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel. ``For my part, I doubt that the Syrians would have been enthusiastic to serve as a depot of weapons of mass destruction for Baghdad.’’ Weapons inspectors left Iraq days before war in Iraq began. In explaining their decision to invade, the United States and Britain charged that Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction. ``Now we will see whether London and Washington were right,’’ Blix told Der Spiegel. ``I am very curious and can only wish them luck in their search.’’ The Bush administration, which blamed Blix for hampering its drive to win international support for war, hasn’t invited UN inspectors to take part in disarming postwar Iraq. Instead, the United States has tried to hire away some inspectors and has deployed its own teams to search for weapons of mass destruction. Blix said internationally backed inspections would have ``considerably more credibility.’’ ``The alliance came as liberator and occupier, and that can prove to be a disadvantage,’’ he told the magazine. ``If its experts now should really discover weapons of mass destruction, their authenticity might be called into question.’’ Reports on Iraqi weapons programs that the inspectors received from intelligence agencies were ``pretty pathetic’’ and led to no discoveries of weapons of mass destruction, Blix said. The chief nuclear weapons inspector, Mohamed El Baradei, even received forged documents meant to persuade the inspectors that Iraq had nuclear weapons ambitions, Blix said. He gave no details. Blix, who has been invited to brief the U.N. Security Council on April 22, called for efforts to declare the entire Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, ``naturally including Israel.’’ Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, though it has not officially acknowledged having them.
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http://www.thefrontierpost.com.pk/main2.asp#377
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Jezus!! volgens mij krijgen we echt weer precies hetzelfde scenario  
Dat gaat niet goed aflopen denk ik, ik vraag me trouwens serieus af wanneer Bush de spreekwoordelijke poppen nou eens aan het dansen krijgt in het M.O. Want ze houden zich nog opvallend rustig 
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vive la feast!!
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