Washington: Syria continued to be at the receiving end of veiled threats from the US
that accused it of harbouring important figures associated with the Saddam Hussein
regime and building weapons of mass destruction.
"Syria needs to broadly assess what role it wants to play, co-operatively with the
rest of the world and with its neighbours - and now, with a newly-liberated
neighbourhood, newly-liberated Iraqi people, where the Iraqi people, themselves,
have a strong message to Syria - don't harbour these people who oppressed the Iraqi
people," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.
"So, most importantly, the President wants Syria to get the message that they need
to re-examine themselves; they need to examine their ties to terrorists, their
harbouring of terrorists, and their development of weapons of mass destruction," he
said.
Hinting that if Syria does not change, it might share the fate of Iraq, Fleischer
said, "President Bashar Assad is a young leader. He is an untested leader. He has
his chance to be a leader who makes the right decisions. We hope he
does."
Asked whether the US is contemplating sanctions, he said, "Well, there are a variety
of levers that are available in diplomacy. We are working bilaterally,
multilaterally. It is too soon to say what the final outcome will be, but for the
cause of peace, it is important for Syria to re-examine its role in the
region."
"They are a state that sponsors terrorism. They have no reason to do that, to act
like that. And certainly they have no reason to harbour these Iraqi officials," he
said.
PTI
