Syria is not next on the list after Iraq but there are questions it must answer, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today after US charges that Damascus possesses chemical arms.
"There are questions which the Syrians need to answer," Straw told reporters after US President George Bush said he believed Syria had chemical weapons.
"What we believe, there is an important agenda for discussions with the Syrian government," Straw said.
Asked if Syria was next on the list, he replied: "We made it clear that it is not and the British prime minister made it clear last week that there is no plan for Syria to be on the list."
Straw added that junior foreign minister Mike O'Brien was going to Damascus today, noting that Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke on the telephone last week with President Bashar al-Assad.
The foreign secretary himself had talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara on Friday.
The United States stepped up criticism of Syria yesterday, adding to the list of accusations that it had allowed senior Iraqi leaders to escape through its territory.
Syrian volunteers fought US troops in Baghdad after entering Iraq by the busload, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
"The Syrian government needs to cooperate with the United States and our coalition partners. It must not harbour any Baathists, any military officials who need to be held to account for their tenure" in Iraq, Bush said.
He stopped short of threatening US action against Damascus, but his comments were the latest warning to Syria to halt support for the deposed Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
"We expect them to do everything they can to prevent people who should be held to account from escaping in their country," he said.
"And if they are in their country, we expect the Syrian authorities to turn them over to the proper folks," said Bush.
"We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," Bush said without elaborating.
"Each situation will require a different response," Bush said. "First things first. We're here in Iraq now."
US intelligence has previously reported that Syria possesses stockpiles of the nerve gas sarin and is believed to have an active biological program, charges similar to those which Washington made against Baghdad before the war.
AFP
