Syrian ambassador stresses mutual interests
Syria and the United States share a mutual interest in stabilizing the Middle East, says the Syrian ambassador to the United States, who is coming to Spokane this week.
But Ambassador Imad Moustapha contends that President Bush’s “deep hostility to us” serves neither nation well.
“We have a common interest in fighting against religious fundamentalists, enemies to both our societies. Particularly Syria, which is a secular society.”
He said that after Sept. 11, Syria provided the Bush administration with a wealth of information on al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The administration has accused Syria of allowing weapons and foreign fighters to enter Iraq through its border.
Moustapha will speak on Wednesday at the invitation of the World Affairs Council of Spokane. In an interview with The Spokesman-Review last week, he discussed Israel, Lebanon and Iraq.
Syria was invited to attend the Nov. 27 Middle East conference in Annapolis only at the last minute, Moustapha said. The United States resisted inviting Syria because of its insistence that the issue of the Golan Heights be on the table. The territory was captured from Syria by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967.
“We told Bush that if the Golan Heights is not discussed, we are not interested in coming,” Moustapha said, adding that the administration relented “only three days before the conference” and agreed to discuss the occupied territory.
The ambassador said the situation in Iraq is another matter on which it is in the interest of Syria and the United States to cooperate.
The Iraqi refugee population in Syria, which peaked at 1.5 million, has been a heavy burden to Syria’s infrastructure, especially social and health services, he said.
“It would be the equivalent of 30 million refugees for the United States.”
He said the Bush administration is obsessed with a military solution in Iraq, even arming the various tribes, something Moustapha called “a dangerous game.”
“We are always telling the United States, ‘Whenever you contemplate a political solution, we can help.’ “
Moustapha was optimistic that the “constitutional void” in Lebanon would be temporary and denied accusations by the United States and others that Syria was creating obstacles to a political resolution there.
“The whole discussion is taking place among the Christian Maronites,” a discussion in which Syria does not take part, according to Moustapha. By law, the Lebanese presidency is reserved for a Maronite.
The ambassador said that from Presidents Nixon to Clinton, Syrians historically have had good relations with the United States. His purpose in speaking in Spokane and other cities across the nation is to reach out to the American people so as to “not allow others to define us,” he said.