Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
US – Naharnet —
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday Syria “should allow” the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of ex Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.
Syria should also close its Iraq border to foreign fighters and crack down on Palestinian extremists if it wants to thaw frosty ties with Washington, Rice added.
Addressing members of Congress after she held an unprecedented meeting with her Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem last week, Rice said any improvement to U.S.-Syria relations hinged on progress on those fronts.
“It was not a conversation about U.S.-Syria relations but about what Syria needs to do to stem the tide of foreign fighters” among other issues, she told a Senate foreign relations hearing.
“Syria continues to be a major funder of terrorism, a major harbourer of those elements of the Palestinian political elite for instance who are opposed to a two-state solution, who are the ones who continue to perpetrate violence in the Palestinian territories and in Israel,” Rice added.
The secretary of state said that she told Muallem during their talks last Thursday, held on the sidelines of a conference on Iraq in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, “that we should talk about Iraq.”
“But U.S.-Syria relations would depend on a great deal more,” she added. Washington accuses Damascus of letting anti-U.S. insurgents cross from Syria to Iraq, supporting terrorist groups in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.
Syria, meanwhile, ruled out any cooperation with an international court to try suspects in the Hariri murder if it threatens its sovereignty.
Syria, which has been implicated in a U.N. probe over the Hariri assassination despite its repeated denials, is opposed to plans for the court which have been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
“Syria needs to allow that tribunal to go forward because people need an answer to what happened to former prime minister Hariri,” Rice said.
