- BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuters)
- Syria, which voted for a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Baghdad
disarm, said on Wednesday it would not join any U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
-
- "Any strike on Iraq outside the framework of the
United Nations, even with the formation of an international alliance or
coalition under the leadership of the United States, we will absolutely
not be a part of," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara told reporters.
-
- "We entered discussions and disputes in the Security
Council so that we could spare Iraq the formation of an international coalition
outside the framework ... of the United Nations. So how can we then agree
to join a coalition outside ... the Security Council resolutions?"
he said.
-
- Shara said the current resolution, which Syria says it
voted for to avert war, did not authorize an automatic attack on Iraq.
-
- Iraq's parliament Tuesday unanimously rejected the U.N.
call for Baghdad to disarm, but President Bush dismissed the action of
a "rubber-stamp" assembly and said he wanted to hear what President
Saddam Hussein had to say. The 15-member Security Council gave Saddam a
Friday deadline to accept the resolution or face "serious consequences."
-
- "We wish and hope Iraq takes a wise and sound position
that preserves its unity and sovereignty and spares it any military action,"
he said. Damascus, once an enemy of Iraq, has recently repaired ties with
Baghdad, including an alleged U.N. sanctions-busting trade in Iraqi oil.
It is worried by any loss of cheap oil and the possible territorial disintegration
of its neighbor that might follow a military campaign.
-
- Syria had been expected to abstain from the Security
Council vote, but said it went along with the majority after being assured
that the text did not include an "automatic trigger" for military
action, which Shara suggested did not have a U.N. mandate.
-
- "The United States, if it wants to strike Iraq,
is capable of doing this," Shara said after meeting Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud. "But if it wants to use ... the Security Council as
a legitimate cover, then it cannot strike Iraq under this cover."
-
- Shara said that war or peace lay with the Security Council
and arms inspectors, calling on all sides to avoid provocation.
-
- "It (the Security Council) is the only competent
authority to decide the issue of peace or war, not any other side, not
the United States or anyone else," he said.
-
- "We hope naturally that the inspectors will not
deal provocatively with the Iraqi government and that Iraqi officials will
not deal with inspection teams provocatively," Shara said.
-
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